The Princess and the Pony
by Dragons and Breakfast Food
Summary: Sunset Shimmer is an outcast, no longer praised or worshipped as the queen of Canterlot High. But when a new villain rises in Equestria, Sunset must move past her own darkness, and find Courage, and use the power of friendship to Save the day, Beat the villain, and find her Destiny.
1. Prolouge

THE PRINCESS AND THE PONY

PROLOUGE

The night was silent, not a sound was in the everfree forest, except for the whispers of the trees, and the thumping of the wolves paws as they ran together. Another sound was there too, the sound of ponies, marching through the forest. Each one was wearing a sickly-green cloak. The leader of the ponies was holding a tattered, old book in his hooves. When the marchers reached the center, and the most dangerous part, of the everfree forest. A dark, stone pedestal rose from the earth. The pony set the book gently on the stand. At once everypony removed their cloaks, they revealed a horrid creature of evil. They resembled changelings, but these changelings were like no other. They had sharp and threatening snake eyes, a forked tongue, and a black snake was coiled around each of their backs, to use as a weapon. The creatures began to chant something. "TERRA, RACKA, SUTKA NAL!" In their language this translated to "rise up, destroyer" the changelings chanted as a snake, uncoiled itself and unlocked the book. It flung open, pages fluttering around as they turned themselves. It stopped on one page, the one page the evil changeling wanted. It was written in the changeling language, the others chanted, "rise up destroyer" as the leader chanted the spell. "MASTAS, ISLAO, BIRRAK, TERRA, NAVA, NIJUE, MASTA, ISHA, LUSLA, NAL!" ("I command, the spirits of pure darkness, to raise her, bring her, to destroy this kingdom!") The creature chanted louder and louder, shouting the spell until the chanting of the other changelings was a mere mumble. The animals of the forest howled and screeched in protest, begging the creatures to stop, but the leader ignored them. The changeling stallion shouted with all his power, the spell once more. "MASTAS, ISLAO, BIRRAK, TERRA, NAVA, NIJUE, MASTA, ISHA, LUSLA, NAL!" at that command, a bolt of green lightning shot up from the ground, speeding into the sky. A crash of thunder exploded around it, forming rings of green clouds in the air. When nothing after that accrued. The changelings grew impatient. "Where is she sumac!" they snapped at the leader. "Patience, she will come" sumac replied. They looked to the air. The clouds of green smoke were not supposed to deliver their queen, it is meant to free her. The clouds gathered, until they looked as if they were going to create a monsoon! But not a drop fell. The cloud moved off into the distance, leaving sumac with an evil grin. "She will come."


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1: A FEW DAYS LATER

Sunset shimmer was in her health class; not paying attention to the lesson miss chrysalis was giving. She was at least TRYING to get over the awful head-ache she was having. "Miss Shimmer" spoke miss chrysalis in a cold voice. She was looking right at her, darn it; she must have asked her a question! "What?" she replied. The class room filled with small giggles. "I said, what is the definition of a covalent bond?" miss chrysalis asked coldly. "Um..." sunset shimmer felt the eyes of the whole class starring her down, waiting for her to mess up."I'm sorry I don't know" she replied as she hung her head. The class giggled some more. Miss chrysalis frowned and moved on to the next student. A piece of paper hit the side of her head. She didn't see who did it, but she un-rolled the wad of paper. On it read, "Drip, drip" the girl was confused, what on earth was that supposed to mean? She ignored it and picked up her ink pen to start taking notes. She clicked it but then the ink shot out of the tip and onto her shirt in a blue mess. The class burst into laughter again. Her pen had exploded! Miss chrysalis sighed with annoyance and wrote the girl a pass to the rest room. "Get it handled" she growled. Sunset shimmer took the paper and rushed to the bathroom. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she did not let them fall. She could not show weakness or they would eat her alive! Well, more than they already were.

Sunset dabbed at her shirt with a paper towel. This was just great, her shirt was practically ruined! "Darling are you alright?" asked rarity as she entered the girls bathroom with applejack, pinkie pie, fluttershy, and rainbow dash. "My pen exploded" sunset replied. "Well, I always carry a spare outfit, just for these situations" rarity chimed. She started rummaging through her bag. "How did you all know I would be here?" sunset asked. "Fluttershy was in your class, remember?" said rainbow dash. How could sunset shimmer notice a shy girl who always sat in the back of the room, and hardly said anything? "A ha" said rarity. She held up a shirt identical to the one sunset was wearing, but without the blue ink all over it. Warm purple with her yin-yang, fiery sun cutie mark on it. "Thanks" sunset sighed. She changed into it in the stall and came out with her leather jacket in her hand. "well that looks good" said applejack. The five girls walked her out; they were walking to gym class when sunset shimmer snapped. "Okay, listen! I don't want any of you to pity me, I hate a lot of things, but pity is the ultimate thing that I can't stand! So no pity eyes, and rarity, stop looking at me like I'm one of those three legged dogs" rarity gave a shy smile. "We did pity you at first, but that doesn't mean that we don't actually want to be your friend" said rainbow dash. "We've already forgiven you, I just think you haven't forgiven yourself" rarity explained. Sunset shimmer frowned, but she knew that they were right. "Ok, well, I know the perfect idea to cheer you up, to go shopping after school" rarity beamed. Shopping did sound like fun, and with the winter's ball in a few weeks, she needed to buy some ice skates. The winter's ball was a school dance that took place at the frozen lake not far from the school. Sunset shimmer was actually very good at skating, she had loved it the second she strapped the skates onto her hooves. It took some time to adjust to skating on feet, but she had gotten the hang of it. The third period bell chimed, and the girls parted. Sunset shimmer's next class was gym. She hated gym, coach sombra was evil! When she arrived at the gym, the schedule said... oh no, dodge ball.

Sunset shimmer felt the leather of the red ball smack the side of her face. She hit the floor with a thud. Coach sombra blew the whistle, the culprit was lightning dust. she was out, but she was obviously proud of it since she gave trixie a high-five. she must have thrown it very hard, because sunset shimmer felt dizzy. a hand extended to help her up. she took it and hoisted herself back onto her feet. her vision cleared and she saw a familiar head of spiky blue hair. "thanks" she grunted. flash sentry just shrugged. "don't mention it" sunset shimmer brushed herself off, though there was little dirt. it just felt weird talking to her ex-boyfriend. she had never really liked him that way anyway. she liked him as a brother; she had only dated him in the first place to gain social status. she avoided him on purpose, ever since the... fall formal, incident, she had felt like she owed him for enslaving him and the whole school. the wind whistled as another ball was aimed right at her. she lifted her hands in defense, the next thing she knew, she was holding the red ball right in front of her! the whistle sounded again, slam dunk was out since she caught the ball he threw. "nice reflexes" flash replied. "thanks, here" said sunset as she handed him the ball. he launched it at someone she didn't recognize, the whistle sounded. she was good at catching the ball, but flash had good aim. every time she caught the ball, she handed it off to him or someone else. the whistle sounded once more, their team won, but sunset barely even smiled. people thought that she was being bitter about not being the ruthless social dictator anymore, but in reality it was the guilt that weighed her down. she did have friends though, in the five girls she split apart before, and that were as strong as stone now. the final bell sounded after the third game, the students changed back into their clothes in the locker rooms. sunset grabbed her bag and left to go to the parking-lot. rarity said for the girls to meet there to go shopping. though it was near freezing outside sunset wasn't phased, the cold never bothered her, which was good considering she loved to skate. while she waited, she twiddled with her necklace. when she was younger, princess Celestia gave it to her. it was a silver sun with a blue gem in the center, and resting in the semi center of a crescent moon, and held up by a black ribbon. the princess said it was to conceal, so sunset wore it every day. rarity then pulled up in her parent's old, red convertible. rainbow dash and pinkie pie were with her, but they were still waiting for applejack and fluttershy. they appeared in an instant, applejack was practically dragging her. they had come from home-ec class, and it was garden week. so obviously fluttershy was reluctant to leave so quickly. the three climbed into the car, rarity pulled her driving scarf over her head and drove away from the school. sunset glanced in the rearview mirror, she was glad to get away from that place, at least for today.

the mall was practically crawling with people; rarity had her hands already filled with shopping bags, though the others had less. they passed the sports shop and sunset entered with rainbow dash, who needed new sneakers. she passed many pairs of ice skates and tried on at least ten, but none of them felt right on her feet. she was walking by the shelves when something caught her eye. a pair of skates, her size, white laces, stainless steel blades, and died with the color of winter blue. a store attendant passed by her. "excuse me?" she asked. "yes, can I help you?" the attendant asked with a smile. "how much for these?" said sunset as she pointed to the skates in her hands. "thirty dollars" the attendant replied. luckily sunset shimmer brought forty dollars. she followed the perky girl to the counter and made her purchase. rainbow dash caught up with her and they waited by the mall fountain for the others. "so, why did you try to destroy everyone?" rainbow asked. though sunset shimmer was a bit startled by the question, she did answer. "well, at the time I was pretty crazy, and power can go to your head, in my case made me lose my sanity" she replied. "why do you wear that pendant, did your parents give it to you or something?" "no, but I NEVER take it off, it... holds me over" she explained. "holds you over? like it protects you?" rainbow dash raised her eyebrow. "in a way, yah, when I was little... something happened to me, I haven't thought about it for a while so I don't quite remember" of course this was a lie, sunset remembered entirely. but the last thing she wanted was more pity from those girls. the others arrived to meet them, the six girls shopped some more then they left. rainbow dash, fluttershy, and pinkie pie had already been dropped off at their homes. applejack and rarity offered to drive sunset home. when they were in good reach of the woods, sunset shimmer asked them to stop the car. with confused glances from rarity and applejack, sunset stepped out of the old car. "where you goin sugar cube?" asked applejack. "this is my drive-way" sunset replied. this was also a lie. when she first arrived in this world, she found an old, abandoned manor in the woods. thanks to obvious scorch and burn marks dotting the house, there must have been a fire that caused the people inside to go live elsewhere. "thanks for the ride you guys" sunset thanked them and started to walk through the trees. "I don't believe her fer a second" applejack murmured. "I agree, who has a house in the middle of the forest?" rarity replied. rarity started the car and drove to a spot out of the way of the road. the two girls exited the car and found the path sunset took through the woods. "let's go" they said at the same time.


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: SUNSET MANNOR

sunset shimmer was a few feet ahead of them, unaware she was being followed. she came to a break in the trees, in the amazing clearing stood the manor; it was two stories with a hidden stream and small waterfall which rested in a pool for water and an incredible garden with many edible fruits and plants. all the beds inside had rotted, and that was about the only thing sunset changed about the home. not to mention the closet she had filled with her own clothes. the manor had about eighty-three rooms, filled with adventures sunset could discover. she walked through the wild flowers that grew in patches all over the abandoned estate. applejack and rarity were close behind her when they gasped in awe at the manor. the front door creaked as the fiery haired girl stepped inside. she flipped a switch and surprisingly, the wall lights lit the home. rarity caught the door before it shut, and she and applejack silently slipped inside. sunset was walking up the grand old staircase, when she stopped. rarity and applejack were confused; they thought she was going directly up the stairs. sunset shimmer grabbed one of the wall lights. the light swung forward and the wall around sunset actually moved! it a moment she was gone, within the walls! the two girls rushed to the flat wall. "where did she go?" asked rarity. "I dun know" applejack replied. on the other side, sunset shimmer grabbed a lit torch off the wall and began to walk towards her destination, a secret room beneath the manor. she still didn't know of the two girls following her. she began to walk down the stairs towards the basement. she reached a door with strange black stones growing around the edges. sunset shimmer unlocked the door with a key in her jacket pocket, and stepped in. the room was amazing if not utterly frightening for sunset. the black stones grew everywhere. they grew on the walls, they hung from the ceiling, and they jutted out in spires along the floor. each one filled with minerals that twinkled like the stars of night. for one, it would be beautiful and amazing, but for the fiery haired girl who caused it, it was utterly terrifying.

sunset shimmer had done all of this years ago, unable to control it, but now that she had been touched by the elements of harmony, she felt that all the dark in her was gone forever. she removed the sun and moon pendant from around her neck and set it on a table in the center of the room. she took a deep breath, "control it, don't feel, to conceal, don't feel to conceal" sunset repeated this. she outstretched her hand to a torch handle. it remained normal for a few seconds, then a minute, then sunset shimmer let out a sigh of relief. she put the torch back onto the wall. but she didn't see that in the shape of her hand, the dark, twinkly marble showed on the handle of the torch. she heard a small crackling noise and looked back at the torch. she sighed with sorrow, and put the pendant back around her neck. with her head hung she walked up the stairs to come face to face with applejack and rarity. "what are you doing here?" she demanded. "we were gonna to ask you tha same question!" snapped applejack. "I live here, so what?" sunset shimmer replied. "you live in this ghastly old castle" rarity said with a shiver in her voice. it wasn't really a castle, but sunset didn't correct her. "well, I cannot except you living in this ghastly, rotting, burnt, dangerous, old castle" said rarity. sunset shimmer could have objected, but she just shrugged. once that girl offered her generosity, there was no talking her out of it. "okay" she smiled.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3: A NEW ARRANGEMENT

twilight sparkle was walking through the halls of canterlot castle. she was visiting for royal business with princess Celestia and princess Luna. she felt a little like the princesses were being unusually secretive with her, and why shouldn't they be? the day of the magic mirror's opening was only a few weeks away, and since sunset shimmer came back last time with bad intensions, the two sisters locked the mirror in a room with a magical lock only the princesses could break, and that was also guarded 24-7. 'the Hall of the Mirror' was a bit of a mouthful, so everypony just called it 'The Gate.' spike was following her, his claws filled with scrolls. he stumbled a few times, until twilight took half of the scrolls in her magic. she and spike were here preparing for the first annual winter's snow ball. a gala that took place at the, currently frozen, canterlot lake. the festivities were going to be pink-tastic! as pinkie pie said. the snows had already come, and it was twilight's idea to celebrate it. winter was beautiful and unappreciated of late, so twilight thought it would be good to have some fun in the cold winter weather. "princess twilight?" said a stern voice. a royal guard was standing behind her. "yes sir?" she replied. "princess Celestia and princess Luna have asked for your presence in the throne room" the guard explained. "yes, of course" twilight said. the guard lead her to the throne room. the princesses were waiting inside. "princess twilight, join us" said princess Luna. by the looks on their faces, they wanted to speak to her about something serious. "yes princess?" she asked. "twilight, you know my nephew prince blueblood" said princess Celestia. "yes, we attended your school for gifted unicorns together, but we never really talked, I know that rarity seemed to have a crush on him until the galloping gala two years ago" twilight explained. "well, he has come of age to take his family's throne in their kingdom in the Smokey mountains, and he cannot take the throne until he commits in... matrimony" the princess shied at the last part of her sentence. "I'm sorry, I still don't understand" said twilight. "the prince must marry before he can inherit the throne, and since me, Luna, and princess cadence are not eligible princesses, you were the next option" twilight was taken aback by what princess Luna said. "an arranged marriage, with me and a total stranger!" she yelped. "yes, since he is my nephew, his father, king Zeus, is the best trader for equestria, his kingdom will fall without a ruler, and without equestria's best traders, we could run out of supplies and food for our own ponies" explained princess Celestia. twilight lowered her head, she hadn't thought about that. still, it would be unfair to marry somepony she didn't love, but it was her duty as a princess to do the right thing. "okay, I accept" twilight said with a forced smile. "that is good, we have arranged for the two of you to meet at the snow ball, a few weeks from today" said princess Luna. princess twilight was dismissed but the sisters had more to discuss. "we should have told her" said princess Luna. "how could I tell her that I'm thinking of inviting sunset shimmer to the ball? on top of the news of an arranged marriage" princess Celestia sighed. "she will be fine, her heart is pure once more" Luna reassured. "yes, but, no you're right" the sisters bid their farewells for the night. princess Celestia was still unsure, sunset shimmer had dark magic within her, that might not have vanished when she left.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4: A NEW FRIEND

it was about nine-thirty AM at canterlot high school. miss cheerilee was doing roll-call for her junior's class. "rarity?" she asked. "here" rarity replied. "lightning dust?" "here" "sunset shimmer?" there was no answer. "sunset shimmer?" miss cheerilee repeated. "she's not here" said flitter. miss cheerilee sighed. "again?" she frowned. sunset shimmer was not in school, she didn't cut class, she didn't come at all. outside it was cold enough to freeze the lake to just the right amount to skate on, and she wouldn't let that opportunity pass her by! she could hear her skates sheering the surface of the ice, the cold air in her face, the sun in her hair. she loved everything about it. she couldn't help but smile; she did a few twirls and spins here and there. she was unaware that a creature was watching her from afar. nothing dangerous of course, just a little hamster, though he was part wolf, on his mother's side, enjoying the show the fiery haired girl was putting on. the hamster smiled at the girl, and crept out from his watching spot. sunset shimmer began to spin on her skates, faster and faster, she outstretched her arms. the hamster copied the movement sunset was doing, when the animal slipped on the ice. he slid down the small hill where he was sitting before and onto the frozen lake. sunset still didn't see him, not until the girl tripped on something and fell onto the ice with a thud. the tiny thing had tried to run into sunset shimmer to stop, but just knocked her over. he felt bad and climbed up to her shoulder and started nuzzling her cheek. sunset giggled, "you scared me" the hamster frowned and his lower lip quivered. "oh, no, it's okay, you're alright" he was adorable; he was a chesnut red color with a white underbelly and white forehead, and four little pink feet. "do you have a name?" sunset asked. the tiny animal shook his head. "well how about...?" sunset shimmer observed the hamster. he was small, but obviously was very brave considering he stepped onto fresh ice with a human fifty times his size while wearing blades on her feet, he was like a little warrior. "how about, Hercules?" sunset smiled. hercules smiled and nuzzled her cheek again, and sunset shimmer laughed. she got to her feet and slid over to the snowy ground, Hercules following her. she removed her skates and gestured for Hercules to come with her, he scurried onto her shoulder. they walked back to the school in the snow.

sunset and Hercules were tip-toeing through the halls to get to sunset's locker. as quite as possible, she opened the metal door and slipped her skates inside. "eh chem." a voice piped up. sunset winced at the familiar stern voice. "hi, vice principal Luna" she shied. the vice principal raised her eyebrow at her. "get to class miss shimmer, and next time, leave your pet outside" she snapped. "yes ma'am" said sunset. "come on Hercules" Hercules smiled and scurried into the girl's backpack. when she arrived to her second class, Hercules waited inside the ratty satchle. the other students in the room didn't notice the hamster until he got bored and scurried throughout the room. "ahh!" someone shreaked. "what?" someone else asked. "something touched my leg, i think it was a rat!" sunset shimmer looked in her bag; Hercules was gone! she started looking for Hercules so he'd stop freaking everyone out, Hercules obviously didn't see her, so he continued to explore. miss cheerilee noticed what sunset shimmer was doing, to try to find the hamster so evryone would shut up. "sunset shimmer?" the girl snapped up into an innocent position in her seat. "yes, miss cheerilee?" she smiled. "is that your... rat, that people are talking about?" miss cheerilee asked shyly. "um... yes" sunset shimmer replied in a wince. some other students overheard them and started laughing, "ha, sunset shimmer actually has a pet rat!" said touchdown. "is she crazy, rats are horrible rodents!" exclaimed lily valley. "she obviously has no common sense!" snapped trixie. the laughing could have continued, but the third period belle chimed, startling most of the students in the classroom. Hercules climbed back into sunset shimmer's bag, she was the first to leave, nobody noticing her wipe a tear from her cheek.

the day went by just as quick as sunset shimmer wanted it to. she was reading one of the many fashion magazines rarity had scattered all over her work room. a few weeks had passed since she offered for sunset shimmer to stay with her in exchange for part-time work. sunset shimmer didn't mind, after all, she needed the money, not to mention a roof to stay under. a terrified shriek came from downstairs. sunset dropped the magazine and rushed to help whoever screamed. it was rarity, shrunk up in her terrified stance with shopping bags surrounding her. she screamed because Hercules was sitting in front of her, though he was barking and scurrying around like it was some kind of game, though rarity was not playing around. fluttershy was with her, but seemed more scared for rarity than of Hercules. "rarity, it's ok, he's not a rat" sunset shimmer explained. "well he sure does look like a rat! where on earth did he come from?!" rarity demanded. sunset shimmer didn't know how to explain to rarity without saying that Hercules was technically a wild animal. "I uh... made a friend" sunset smiled. "aww, such a cute little face" cooed fluttershy. the shy girl was petting Hercules's head, Hercules of course loving it. "but it could bite you... or scratch your eyes out" rarity exclaimed. "rarity, it's a he, not an it, and how can this adorable little guy hurt somebody? you shouldn't judge him just because he's part wolf" fluttershy snapped. rarity still looked unsure, but it's difficult to argue with fluttershy when the argument is about animals. "alright, but keep her away from my outfits" said rarity. "deal."


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5: CORDUALLY INVITED

princess twilight was carrying a candle obra to take to the starswirl the bearded wing. princess Celestia personally asked her to study opening spells, though twilight knew almost every opening door spell there was, princess Celestia told her that this one was very important. twilight wasn't one to argue with the princess. she picked up a spell book and began to read. "let's see, opening doors, opening the ground" twilight read aloud, she bookmarked the opening the ground spell, could be useful when she and her friends are running away from a horrible monster. she came across many different spells but couldn't find what the princess was looking for. she even came across a "pure of heart spell" but that wouldn't help the princess. she went to take another book from the shelf when she, without knowing, stepped on a secret button in the floor. a secret compartment rose from the floor of the library, making twilight jump. she looked at the compartment, inside was a tattered old book with a sun on the cover, it wasn't exactly like princess Celestia's cutie mark, but it was close. she opened the book, and there was an inscription on the first page, "diary of sunset shimmer" twilight read aloud. "SPIKE!" she screamed. spike zoomed into the room to twilight's call. "what, what's wrong?" he asked. twilight showed him the diary and his eyes widened. "I didn't know sunset shimmer kept a diary" the small dragon acknowledged. "me neither... should we read it?" she asked. "you're asking me if you should read a book?" spike said sarcastically. "but this isn't any book, this is sunset shimmer's diary, I wouldn't want to read her secrets" twilight accused. "but what if in there is what princess Celestia is looking for?" spike asked. that was true, twilight thought. she turned to the first entry of the journal and began to read. "dear diary, this is my first entry in the palace, I am excited to begin my studies, though I will miss the comforts of my own bed, and melody breeze in the bed next to mine, but dad says that the princess wants to train me and my powers, and that it's imperative I learn control over them, whatever that means." twilight read for hours until she found a very interesting spell in the journal. "opening portal spell?" she said aloud.

the princess was still awake in the throne room when twilight burst in telling of imperative news. "princess Celestia!" twilight urged. "yes princess twilight?" the princess asked in her usual gentle tone. "I found something, something amazingly important!" twilight lifted the diary with her magic so Celestia could see the spell. "good work princess twilight, this spell is just what we needed" Celestia explained. twilight was confused, "what do you mean? the only portal I've ever seen is the one locked away in the gate" princess Celestia sighed, "well, I wanted to tell you sooner, but the winter's snow ball has had my sister and I so busy, I've decided to invite sunset shimmer to the ball to sing" twilight's eyes widened. "are you sure? I mean, this is the pony who stole the element of magic and tried to take over equestria with it" twilight snapped. "as you told me when you returned from the other world, she has learned her lesson about friendship and that she has been reformed, and since you have found this spell and her diary from when she was my student, I thought it would be perfect for her to return to equestria, return home" princess Celestia explained. twilight thought about this, sunset shimmer was considerably twilight's friend, but the others wouldn't forgive and forget like twilight did, or at least was trying to. it would be great to see her again, but then twilight thought about sunset shimmer's family. she had met sunset's older sister, melody breeze; at princess cadence and shinning armor's wedding. she was a very famous singer in canterlot, and her father was a blacksmith for the canterlot royal guard. her family was longing for her to return home, and the snow ball would be perfect for twilight to convince sunset shimmer to stay in equestria! "ok, I'll do it, but I will need to use the spell to teleport an invitation first" twilight included. princess Celestia nodded. twilight bid the princess goodbye and continued with her studies for the rest of the night, thinking about what to say to sunset shimmer if she even came back. twilight grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote a letter to the fiery girl. she signed the front with sunset shimmer's name, it took a lot of effort and twilight had a bit of a headache after she sent it, but it was, hopefully, teleported to the world sunset shimmer was in. but that wasn't all, in the diary, twilight read some very interesting entrees that said things like, "I am very frightened, my powers are growing, and I fear I will not be able to control them" or "the princess has told me that though the night holds beauty, it holds great darkness, and that fear will be my enemy, but that though the night is dark, there will always be light, even in dark." twilight didn't know what these entrees meant, but she intended to find out.

another early morning at canterlot high school, sunset shimmer was sitting, bored out of her mind in her class. she was just doodling random musical notes on her paper and humming the melody. she would do this all the time with her sister; they make up melodies and sing them out-loud. it reminded them of their mother. sunset's mother had disappeared when she was little, no more than three years old. before she left, she lived with her sister and her father. oh how sunset missed them, she glanced at her warm violet shirt with her cutie mark on it. the picture appeared on her top in her freshman year. she hadn't ever told the story to anyone until last week. everyone was over what happened at fall formal and was finally warming up to her, the cutie mark crusaders even asked her how she got her cutie mark. she remembered the story from when she first came to this world. it was a stormy day and she was sitting at the school statue, doodling in her notebook during a free period. at the time, she wondered how 'humans', as she now knew they were called, even got cutie marks. she heard laughing coming from the sports field, and it didn't sound friendly. she set her notebook down to go see who was laughing, of course is was slam dunk and touchdown making fun of a girl with flat, purple hair. she was told that the girl was visiting from the city, and was a total book-worm. sunset shimmer didn't know the girl's name, but anyone with half a mind could see that she was irritated and her little dog was picking up her school supplies out of the mud, she couldn't hear well from where she was standing, but it sounded like they were calling her "firelight stumble" or maybe "dirt sparkle" they were obviously insulting her with her own name, as they did. sunset shimmer became angry at the two boys, she had been in that girl's shoes, slam dunk and touchdown made fun of HER for being new, and she filled with rage to see them doing it to a girl they didn't even know! before she could stop herself, she was on the field, in front of the girl like a fiery shield. "hey, back off!" she snapped. the two boys were taken aback by her sudden appearance. "oh yah, or what?" touchdown snapped back. "or else someone is going to be an organ donor before they can even drive, so walk away before a rip you limb from limb and use your guts for a SKIPPING ROPE!" the two boys ran away and sunset was about to help the girl pick up her things out of the mud, when the ground shuddered and a storm cloud zapped a bolt of lightning on the ground, and the sky cleared away in almost a minute! left behind was a beautiful, circular rainbow! she learned in science class that the entire circle of the rainbow could be seen in the sky, but it was extremely rare, and all the more wonderful. "hey, look!" sunset shimmer said to the girl. she lifted her head at the sky, and her eyes widened. "wow, I read in most of my science books that circular rainbows are incredibly elusive" the girl said. the bell sounded and the girl snapped into a frantic state. "oh, I can't be late, come on spike" the girl said to her dog. the dog barked and they sped away. "uh, bye" sunset shrugged and walked away. she then saw a small light come from her heart. the next thing that happened made her spirit rise and a smile emerged on her face. a fiery yin yang sun had appeared on her shirt. her cutie mark had come! "sunset shimmer!" called a voice. sunset shimmer snapped out of her thinking when pinkie pie shrieked in her face. "what is it pinkie?" she asked. "class is over, for one, oh and this came for you" pinkie handed her a scroll with her name on it. "but, I never get mail, especially not at school" she said as she took the paper from pinkie. "well it was on the front lawn near the statue of the horse" the cheerful girl smiled. sunset shimmer unrolled the scroll and read what was written on it. surprisingly it was royal hoof-writing,

Dear Sunset Shimmer, I know you haven't been home in a long time, but I have recently found a powerful opening portal spell, and with the first annual Winter Snow Ball tonight, the princesses believed it would be wonderful if you could attend the ball to sing. you will have time to prepare yourself for the ball, the portal with be opened for you at midnight tonight. hope to see you there.

Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle

sunset's mouth hung open at the letter; pinkie pie closed it for her. "what does it say?" she asked. "twilight wants me to attend the first winter snow ball to sing, do you know what that means?!" sunset gleamed. pinkie pie tapped her chin thoughtfully. sunset shimmer beamed at pinkie pie, "the portal's open today" sunset zoomed out of the classroom, took a random person's hands and spun them around in a circle. "the portal's open today!" she cheered.

"the portal is open, do I dare?  
no other places can compare  
I'm tired of using hands to hold a pen

for years I've roamed this high school's halls  
it's like a ballroom with no balls  
finally I'm going home again

there'll be actual real life ponies  
it'll be totally strange  
but wow am I so ready for this change?"

sunset shimmer swung open the window and stared longingly at the morning sky.

"cause for the first time in forever  
there'll be music there'll be light  
for the first time in forever  
I'll see Luna bring the night

don't know if I'm elated or gassy  
but I'm somewhere in the zone  
cause for the first time in forever...  
I'll be going home"

"I can't wait to see everyone" sunset shimmer gleamed at Hercules and scooped him up into her hands "wait, what if I see, THE one" she darted to the staircase and continued her song.

"tonight imagine me gown and all  
flirtingly drift throughout the ball  
the picture of sophisticated grace

I suddenly see him standing there  
a handsome stallion, tall and fair  
I wanna stuff some chocolate in my face

but then we laugh and talk all evening  
which is totally bizarre  
nothing like the life I've lead so far..."

sunset shimmer burst into the library. she climbed up onto the book-shelf ladder, and spun and slid around the room as she sang.

"for the first time in forever  
there'll be magic, there'll be fun  
for the first time in forever  
I could be noticed by someone

and I know it's totally crazy  
to dream I'd find romance  
but for the first time in forever  
at least I have a chance"

back in equestria, princess Celestia was reconsidering inviting her former student to the snow ball. she worried that sunset shimmer would give in to the dark magic in her heart, that being changed by the elements of harmony was ineffective in reversing it; she just hoped that sunset shimmer remembered what the princess had taught her...

"she won't let them in  
or let them see

she'll be the good girl she has been trained to be  
she'll conceal  
and won't feel

she'll put on a show  
make one wrong move and everyone will know...

but it's only for today"

"it's only for today!"

"it's agony to wait..."

"it's agony to wait!"

"tell Luna to open up... the gate!"

"the gate!"

sunset shimmer burst into the cafeteria, ignoring the glances people gave her as she sang. all she thought of was this chance, to go home, to see her OWN world.

"for the first time in forever..."  
"don't let them in, don't let them see..."

"I'm getting what I've dreamed so long...!"  
"be the good girl you have been trained to be..."

"a chance to change my destiny..."  
"conceal..."

"a chance to find where I belong..."  
"conceal don't feel don't let them know..."

"I know it all ends tomorrow, so it has to be today...  
cause for the first time in forever  
for the first time in forever..."

sunset shimmer leaped onto the table and winked at... well she didn't know! and she didn't care!

"nothing's in my WAY!"

rarity, applejack, and pinkie pie bounded up to her and helped down from the table. "I assume you're happy about something" rarity chuckled. sunset shimmer pulled the letter from her pocket and handed it to rarity. rarity unrolled it in a flourish, and read it. "this is wonderful, you must be so excited!" "I am!" sunset beamed. "bout what?" rarity handed the letter to applejack. "well in that the cat's meow, it's no wonder yer so happy" "well I know you are excited to go home, but I certainly hope you won't miss the winter's ball tonight" said rarity. "of course I won't" she replied. she had forgotten for a moment that the winter's ball was tonight. she agreed to meet the girls at rarity's shop to get ready, and she couldn't be more excited, and maybe even a little relieved. for her to return home would be magical, but she was more relieved to see everyone again, she and twilight's ponyville friends had not technically met. "so are you coming back or staying home forever?" asked rainbow dash as she and fluttershy walked up. "well a 'course she's gonna stay home... aren't ya?" applejack asked. sunset shimmer was debating that herself, she decided... to decide later. "I'll decide later, come on, we have a party to get ready for!" she exclaimed. the five girls smiled and the six of them walked out together.


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6: WINTER'S BALL

sunset shimmer slipped into her skating socks, along with shimmery knuckless gloves, while rainbow dash was trying on a pair of skates in rarity's shop that looked the most "cool." sunset smeared some aqua-green eye-shadow onto her eye-lids, while rarity wove artificial pearls into her fiery hair. when the hair-do was complete, sunset shimmer's hair was woven into a stylish braid-bun hybrid with the woven in pearls to hold the do together. two locks of her red and gold hair dangled from the side of her face, to drift carelessly when she skated. the dress rarity had made was even more beautiful. the skirt, a lovely three layers. one was pale blue, the second was a lighter shade of winter blue, and the third layer was the same as the first layer but made of a shimmery, transparent fabric. the top was a shimmery aqua-blue, strapless, with a light blue ribbon on the left side, including a matching choker, with a pearl, all made to match the aqua-blue ice skates she purchased, along with her shimmery, ice-blue gloves. "it's amazing rarity" admired sunset. the others were dressed in skating attire as well. "well, the onsomble isn't quite finished yet" rarity said matter-of-factly. sunset shimmer was told to close her eyes, while rarity pulled out a hair-piece that would surly surprise the girl. flourishingly, rarity gently placed the piece onto sunset's head, to match the pearls. "okay, open your eyes" smiled rarity. sunset shimmer's eyes froze on the object on her head. it was a silver tiara with three dark violet gems. "well, do you like it?" asked the fashionista. sunset never spoke. "I dun think she likes it" said applejack. "no, it's not that, it's just, why a crown?" sunset shimmer asked. "well, I had planned the outfit a while ago, but I wasn't sure how you would react, so I went out on a limb... do you not like it?" whimpered rarity. it was an excellent question, did she like it? everyone knew that sunset shimmer had a bad history involving crowns. just thinking about it almost gave her a migraine, but she shoved it away, she didn't want to flake out on the girls, err, her friends. "it's perfect" she sighed. "oh fabulous, now it's four hours till midnight..." "so we have four hours to party!" cheered rainbow dash.

the six girls arrived at 8:15, so they almost had four hours till midnight. no one was phased when the five girls walked onto the frozen lake, but when sunset shimmer came into view, they all became silent. it was the tiara! "copy cat" muttered a freshman girl named diamond tiara. a freshman boy slid up to her shyly. "hello sunset shimmer" he murmured. "hello, what's your name?" she asked. "rumble" he replied. "hi rumble, will you skate with me?" sunset shimmer outstretched her hand to the boy. he took her hand and they skated together. "no, please, don't stop!" she called to everyone else. they all exchanged glances and shrugged. the band started up again and everyone relaxed. sunset and rumble skated together for a while before sunset shimmer broke off to skate alone for a little while. rumble waved goodbye and went to skate with his big brother, thunderlane, whom sunset thought fluttershy was crushing on. Hercules was sitting in the snow to watch. sunset shimmer was twirling and spinning like a floating ballerina. "she may be a pain in the tail at times, but she is REALLY good" said applejack. her little sister, applebloom, nodded in agreement. she, sweetie belle, and scootaloo huddled up in a circle. "I think that she needs some company out there" said applebloom. "yah, she could help us get cutie marks in ice skating" chimed sweetie belle. "well let's go!" yelped scootaloo. the three girls slid onto the ice, heading for sunset shimmer. she stopped spinning and began to fool around with the crusaders. they were fun to hang out with, sometimes. Hercules smiled where he was sitting, but suddenly he smelt something very strange on the wind. the hamster looked to the sky, there were very dark, very GREEN clouds heading their way. he hoped it didn't rain and ruin all the fun. thunder sounded from the cloud of dark green smoke, everyone stopped having fun and stared, horrified at the clouds. sunset shimmer stopped where she was with a surprise jolt. "huh?" she uttered. the smoke cloud was getting closer, and bigger! it began to hover over the statue of the school's mascot. the smoke cloud then began to spin! it coiled around the statue like a snake, spinning faster and faster, thunder sounded and lightning flared from within, the wind howling around the stunned students. a deafening smash filled the air and glass shattered from the cloud, scattering it over the students, who cowered and ran. sunset shimmer didn't move, she stared into the cloud, her curiosity conquering her fears of what would happen if she got to close. the cloud sounded a last roar of thunder before she saw it. a large, black shadowy figure of a pony. it reared, hooves flaring, it's mane cascading throughout the speeding wind. sunset could tell it was NOT good, judging by its raging red eyes and evil scowl upon it's face. in another flash of lightning, the pony was gone, along with the smoke clouds. the statue was gone, along with the four sides of the marble block under the statue. all that was left were pieces of glass everywhere, the frame of the statue's stand, and something that left everybody speechless.

sitting, dead in the center of the block-frame, was a blinding, blue, slowly spiraling light. it was beautiful, but everyone else was terrified of it, all except sunset shimmer. she just stared at it, thinking. if this light was here all along, then this light must be the power that opens the portal to and from equestria every thirty moons! sunset slowly walked to it. "sunset shimmer, what are you doing?!" fluttershy squealed. "it's alright" she replied. she took another step towards the light. it was now close enough to touch, she outstretched her hand. a twinge of fear stopped her, but she thought of home, her family, and the fear vanished. she plunged her hand into the light. a few gasps came from the people watching her. the light felt like... water? she swished her hand around in the watery light. a laugh escaped her mouth, then the light snapped into something bad. it zoomed from its resting spot, and bounced all over the place. students ducked to the ground while holding their heads. it held its ground for a moment in front of the band, paused in front of one of the players, and swallowed him in a splash of light. he was still visible but the glowing water coiled around him like a snake. it dragged him to the portal frame, and began to grow brighter. a hand appeared in front of sunset shimmer, and in a flash she grabbed it, slinging her other arm around the frame wall for leverage. she managed to pull him out until his head was visible, it was flash sentry. the light grew brighter until tears welled up from sunset's eyes. the marble spire she was holding began to crack from the light pulling them into it. in an instant the spire shattered and the watery light pulled sunset shimmer into it along with flash, Hercules scurried to assist the girl, but just vanished as well. the light thundered and in a split second the light was gone. "they're gone!" rarity panicked. "what do ya mean thar gone?" asked applejack. "I mean they are not here anymore, they disappeared into that light!" cried rarity. "we need to tell principle Celestia!" rainbow dash snapped. the five girls rushed back to the school in the snow to tell the principle what happened.

"they what!?" principle Celestia yelped. "a storm cloud appeared..." "and then the statue broke apart..." "and this light appeared..." "and they got sucked into it, and now they're gone!" the girls explained franticly. "we must find them, get the students together and start looking immediately!" Celestia ordered. the five nodded and left the room to begin the search.


	8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7: PARTY CRASHERS

"princess twilight!" a guard called. "yes, state your business" twilight said formally. "your highness, the portal, to the world where sunset shimmer is residing, it's... destroyed!" the guard said frantically. "what happened?" twilight asked. "the Gate was opened, to let her come through, but once the other guards and I arrived at it, it shattered, and was destroyed!" the guard explained. twilight tapped her head with her hoof, "search the Gate thoroughly, there must be some sort of clue to why the portal has been destroyed" the guard saluted to her and galloped away. "why would the portal break apart?" spike asked, "I don't know, mirrors don't just shatter randomly" twilight replied.

"urrrgh" sunset shimmer groaned. her hooves felt cold in the snow as she stood up. she rubbed her head with her hoof and froze, dead in her tracks, she gazed down at her orange hooves, still in the winter blue ice skates and shimmery transparent socks. she ran her eyes over the rest of her true form. still wearing the dress rarity made her, her hair still elegantly styled with the pearls and tiara. the only thing about herself that was different was that she was a fiery haired mare once more! an important thought came to her mind. she held the sun and moon necklace around her neck with her aqua-green magic, and removed it carefully. still holding it, she ever so slightly placed her hoof on the white snow. her eyes widened with horror as the black crystals spread in front of her hooves. when it stopped, she franticly placed the necklace back around her neck, and covered the black, glossy stone with snow. she heard a groan come from behind her. she swung her head around, a stallion, resembling her in some ways, was lying in the snow, unconscious! after a few moments, sunset shimmer knew who he was, it was flash sentry. he had come through the portal to equestria with her! she didn't think it was fair to feel like she was stuck with him, but that's how it looked to her. he groaned again, sunset walked towards him and poked his head with her hoof. "hey flash, are you dead or what?" she asked. his eyes flew open and sunset jumped back, clearly startled. he looked at her with a mix of fear and confusion. "am I dead?" he asked. "not just yet" sunset shimmer replied. he stood up, stumbling at first. "what happened?" sunset rolled her eyes. "you got sucked into a portal to equestria, I tried to save your hide, now we're both in equestria, and you are a pony" explained sunset. his eyes widened and he stared at his front hooves, and broke into panic when he saw his blue, spiky tail. sunset shimmer rolled her eyes again. "look!" she snapped "since we're here, and you need to get back, you need to CHILL OUT!" she glared at him. flash let out a large exhale. "alright, well, where do we even go? we're just sitting in the middle of the snow!" sunset's ears perked up to listen. elegant music was chiming in her peripheral hearing, they must be near the snow ball! "follow me" sunset waved her hoof forward, and flash followed. they came over a snowy hill, to see a lovely frozen lake filled with life. a pony orchestra was playing an elegant tune, ponies were ice skating and talking and laughing everywhere. it was almost like the winter's ball at canterlot high. the lights, the music, the dancing, it was wonderful! "ok, I'm gonna go get help, you stay here, and try not to do anything stupid" sunset advised. she quietly walked towards the crowd of ponies, careful not to draw attention to herself, but that was some-what hard with her wearing a one of a kind dress from Rarity herself. a few glances were thrown her way, but she ignored them. she was halfway through the crowd when a hoof tapped her shoulder. "you, can you sing?" the mare asked. the pony noticed that sunset looked confused and sighed, "our act for the ball is astonishingly late, we need somepony to sing or that crowd will become pandemonium!" the mare panicked. "so can you sing or not?" she asked. "um, yes?" sunset said briefly before getting yanked to a stage in the middle of the ball. the orchestra ponies were patiently waiting for her there. "but what do I si...?" the mare was already walking away. sunset shimmer stepped hesitantly to the microphone. the eyes of many ponies, watching her, waiting for her to sing a song she hadn't even thought of writing! she had been so excited to come here, and nervous about what to do afterwards, to think about singing at the ball. the ponies in the crowd looked impatient. then a thought came to her mind, a song she had always known, ever since her mother went missing. sunset shimmer liked to believe that her mother sang this to her when she was small. with a clear of her throat, she began,

"the sun will rise high  
lighting up the sky

for her beams of glee  
will always watch over me

when in harmony's eyes you will never stray  
forever as long as there's night and day"

twilight sparkle interrupted her conversation with rarity to listen to the music playing distantly. it sounded lovely. fluttershy came up to her, clearly lost in the melody, spike was enjoying it too. "let's go listen spike" twilight suggested. the two walked towards the stage.

"the moon will sing to you  
but only if your heart is true

she spreads love and light throughout the evening air  
streams of beauty running like silver hair

they unite together  
and will be around forever

and their magic will forever stay  
as long a there is night, and, day."

the crowd of ponies burst into applause and cheering for sunset shimmer, she felt... happy. the ponies cheered some more, then went back to their mingling. somepony even left a cup, and others filled it with gold coins called 'bits' which was the equestria form of currency. to her surprise, Hercules was sitting beside it, guarding it from those who tried to take the money she earned. she picked the cup up with her magic, when a few more bits were dropped into it, "what a beautiful song" the pony said. "thanks, my mom would sing it to... me?" sunset shimmer and twilight's eyes widened at each other. twilight smiled and sunset smiled back. "whoa" she uttered. "how did you get here?" twilight asked. "I was wondering that myself, come on, I'll tell you about it" sunset waved twilight forward and they walked and talked through the ball. "so, flash is here too?" twilight asked with sort-of a high pitched girly voice. "yah, the water-light just... attacked him out of nowhere, I told him to stay out of sight, he's up there" sunset shimmer pointed to where he was waiting for her to return and get them both back to canterlot high. her horn glowed it's aqua-green magic for the first time in almost a year, and in a bright flash of light, the orange colt was standing in front of them. flash looked frantic. "but I was ju... and you ju... what!" "get used to it, stuff like that happens a lot here" sunset grinned. his gaze fell to twilight, clearly looking dumb-struck by her dress. it was pretty, the top was a midnight-blue patterned with the starry night, the belt was a dark silver ribbon tied with a bow, the skirt started as a sky-blue and faded into a violet color, including dark grey accents, and silver, strap shoes. she also wore a dark silver tiara with a small blue gem. designed by rarity, no doubt. anypony with half a brain could tell that twilight and flash liked each other. ponies began to stare at flash. they could tell he didn't belong. twilight and sunset exchanged glances. sunset turned on her hooves at flash. "you'd better stay here, if you flip out at the palace, ponies will know you don't belong here" she told him. he nodded and left to go mingle. mares were staring at him and blushing, not really a surprise, he was an attractive pony, but for some reason sunset shimmer never felt, what's the word? "head over hooves" for him. now twilight on the other hoof, she was obviously crushing, bad. sunset didn't really bother flash, or as some would say, unleash her wrath upon him, at school. she just could never bring herself to hurt him, it was like she had some sort of, weird bond with him, like he was the friend who was always there, but they weren't really friends, were they? sunset shimmer pushed the thoughts out of her mind and followed twilight to the palace in the snow. "twilight!" screamed a voice. it was pinkie pie zooming towards them. her gown was gorgeous, it fit her personality perfectly, it was blue with ruffled layers of light pink and warm violet, the front of the gown was fastened with a blue bow, along with matching shoes, her mane was even woven with colored bows and ribbons, "twilight, we have to get princess Celestia, sunset shimmer is back and we..." she frantic sentences were interrupted by a shocked gasp and a scream as she glanced at sunset. she sped away, and sunset started to feel closed in, like everypony was starring at her, because they were, but they quickly shrugged at went back to their fun. sunset sighed with relief. "so, sunset shimmer, I know you haven't made a decision on what to do while you're here, whether to stay or go back, so I wanted to try to help you make a decision" explained twilight. at that moment, rarity trotted up to them. now HER gown was beautiful. her mane was styled in a complicated way, and was streaked with green and blue, a pretty patch of blue and green fabric, cut into the shape of a feather-fan was tucked behind her left ear, a peacock feather was woven into her violet locks as well, her gown a blue and green masterpiece resembling a peacock, she was even wearing her blue eye-shadow with some light green eye-liner. "hello rarity" sunset shimmer greeted. rarity opened her eyes and her calm expression turned into a mixture of nervousness and a little fear as well. "um, hello, sunset shimmer, twilight, are you absolutely sure that inviting her was a good idea, what if we can't trust her?" rarity whispered to twilight. "rarity, I am one-hundred percent sure we can trust sunset shimmer" twilight replied. "rarity, the dresses you made are beautiful" sunset complemented. "why thank you, I worked so hard on them, and I love yours, where ever did you have it made?" smiled rarity. "oh, just from a friend" sunset shimmer winked at twilight and she giggled. applejack and fluttershy walked up to them next. applejack's gown was simple, yet beautiful, it was a simple brown with a two-layer skirt with gold argile trim and a matching belt, and a brown colar with short frilled sleeves, along with a beaded green apple pendant. her mane was also styled into light curls. fluttershy's was a light turquoise to match her eyes, with green leaves lining the skirt, the top was a simple leaf woven fasten with a butterfly charm, along with small daisies woven into her styled mane. "applejack, fluttershy, you remember sunset shimmer, right" twilight gave them a look that meant, "be nice" "oh, it's nice to officialy meet you sunset" fluttershy smiled, applejack said nothing, sunset shimmer and twilight walked and talked all through the ball, clearly forgetting the guard's request, but they were having so much fun! applejack and rainbow dash were even warming up to sunset shimmer, well at least a little bit.

"so, what's it like in that other world?" rainbow dash asked, "well, it's um, not like here" sunset replied, rainbow dash flapped her wings in the air, her gown had spiked gold fabric peices resting on her wings that danced through the wind as she flew, her gown was a shimmery blue with her cutie mark embeaded on the sides, with gold shoes and lining on the dress to match, along with a gold necklace with a warm pink lightning bolt, and matching earring, she shrugged and zoomed away, sunset lifted her nose to a warm scent "mmm, do you smell that?" sunset asked. twilight sniffed the air, it did smell delectable, and her mouth watered at the warm smell. "apple pie" they both said at the same time. they both giggled. "you know, sunset, the princess gave me the power to have you stay or leave, but I want it to be your decision, and I really want you to stay" twilight exclaimed. sunset shimmer held her sun and moon pendant in her hoof, it still around her neck. as much as she wanted to stay, she couldn't, her magic was too dangerous, she would just be putting the ponies she loved in danger. "I, I can't" sunset frowned. "but, Celestia told me you were forgiven you..." "I just, can't" she snapped back. twilight hung her head and began to walk away, when a white stallion knocked her off her hooves. she hit the ice with a thud. "hey!" she snapped. "oh I am terribly sorry are you hurt?" the stallion asked. he was snow white, with a sun-gold mane, and a cutie mark that resembled a compass. it was prince blueblood. "no, but thank you for your consideration your highness" twilight said as she got to her hooves and brushed off the snow from her dress. "I'm just a bit nervous, I'm supposed to meet a princess twilight sparkle" he said. "well, you're looking at her" twilight giggled. "oh, dear, your majesty" he bowed to her. "um, you don't have to do that" twilight sighed. prince blueblood rose to his hooves. "I hope you do not think less of me now that we're betrothed, but I think I know how you feel, I wouldn't want to marry a stranger either" he explained. "well, I guess it's happening, let's get to know each other first" the prince nodded. he held out his hoof. "care to dance?" he asked "sure, why not?" twilight smiled. "so do you enjoy reading?" twilight asked as they began a dance on the ice. "not really, but I do like skating, and running and hiking, do you enjoy it?" twilight shook her head, "not really" prince blueblood was obviously an experienced skater, he was twirling and spinning while twilight was struggling just to stay on all four hooves! he extended his hoof to help her, and she gripped it like her life depended on it. it didn't seem like she and the prince didn't have anything in common. "blueblood, I have to ask you, my friend rarity attended the galloping gala and met you, she said you were a total jerk! may I ask why?" twilight asked. "well, I'm not one for the gala, it's always so boring, I crave adventure, excitement, maybe even a little romance, but your friend didn't seem all that into, well, dirt, and you can't have an adventure without getting a little dirty, so I acted like a jerk so she would get fed up and leave me alone, I guess I could have handled it better though" he explained. "yah, just a little" twilight laughed. the prince laughed too. flash had seen them talking and laughing from where he was. he frowned and lowered his head. he really liked twilight, but it seemed she liked somebody, um, some-pony else. he started to walk away from the ball when something painful bit down on his leg. he tried to cry out, but the venom from the black snake who bit him had left his voice mumbled and scratchy. "help" me muttered. a black stallion with a sickly-green mane and piercing ice-blue eyes stalked towards him. the stallion uttered "tell sumac we've got another one" two more black ponies tied him up, he tried to fight them, but the snake venom had made him too weak. one stallion trough him onto his back, and they galloped away from the ball. flash's vision became blurry, then he blacked out.

twilight had left her dance with prince blueblood early, and was once again talking and laughing with sunset shimmer. sunset told her about Hercules, and Hercules climbed up into twilight's mane and nuzzled her cheek and twilight laughed. "sunset, I wanted to ask you, it's very important and I hope you will say yes, but, will you stay here, in equestria?" twilight asked. sunset looked stunned by the question. "now I know you said no before, but after we talked and became better friends I was hoping you would change your mind" pinkie pie came up (not terrified of sunset anymore) and said, "ooh, and I'll through the most amazing 'welcome back from the other world' home-coming party!" she squealed. "and maybe she could move ta ponyville" applejack suggested, "that's a great idea applejack, oh it will be so wonderf..." "just, no, nopony is throwing a party, nopony is moving to ponyville, twilight I told you I can't stay" sunset sighed. "but, what about your home?, what about your friends?" twilight asked. sunset shimmer took a deep breath, "you asked me to stay, but my answer is no" it was a tough decision for sunset shimmer, but she had to keep her family safe. "I'm going back, where's flash?" sunset began to walk away. "what? sunset no please" twilight meant to grab her mane with her magenta magic, but instead she grabbed sunset's pendant and it snapped off of her neck. she gasped "give me my necklace!" she reached for it but twilight held it back. "sunset please, your family needs you back" twilight begged. "just leave me alone! princess" sunset shimmer snapped. twilight was hurt bad by what sunset shimmer just said. the night they first met, sunset had called her 'princess' in a sneering voice, it was the same voice now. she began to walk away "what did I ever do to you!?" twilight cried. "just stop twilight" sunset sneered. her voice was calm, but fear began to engulf her. she felt her power fighting its way out, she needed to get away before it hurt somepony. "no, why? why did you run away? wha why did you abandon your home? were you afraid of something? did you run away like a coward!?" sunset had had enough, "I said STOP!" she slammed her hooves into the ice, it cracking and jutting out in sharp spires, a foot or two away from twilight and the others, the black, crystal stone snapped out of the ice like knives. twilight backed away and sunset shimmer looked at it in horror, she had done this, she almost hurt her friends. "dark magic, I knew we couldn't trust her" rarity huffed. "sunset" muttered twilight. sunset shimmer stumbled and ran from the crowd. twilight stood for a moment, still holding sunset's pendant in her magic, she looked at it, knowing she'd seen it before somewhere. sunset shimmer ran through the snow, when she came into a small village. ponyville no doubt. ponies were on the streets, starring at her as she ran. "it's sunset shimmer" somepony said. "how did she get here?" another asked. sunset skidded to a halt as three fillies stood before her. "sunset shimmer, are you okay?" one of them asked. sunset shimmer backed away from them nervously, and her back hoof hit the stone road a bit harder than she liked, and turned the road to darkness, the black stone reached the public fountain, turning its waters as black as a starless night. screams of horror and terror filled the streets of ponyville. the mayor of the city darted in front of city hall, trying to calm everypony down. but their gazes were focused on sunset shimmer, "please, don't come near me, just stay away..." a beam of black magic shot from her horn without her control. it sped towards city hall, barley missing the mayor and exploding and engulfing the building in black fire. that had NEVER once happened before, this made sunset even more afraid. "mu, monster, MONSTER!" the mayor cried in agony (even though she only had a small burn from the fire) sunset felt tears stream down her face. she had to get away, her gaze fell onto a deep dark forest. good enough. sunset shimmer sprinted into the shadowy wood, branches and vines tearing at her gown and ripping it to shreds. her mane had come undone and fell into its sloppy braid on her shoulder. the deeper she went into the forest, the more dark magic seeped from her. the plants around her withered and died as she passed, some even caught fire and burned. sunset shimmer burst into a clearing, in the center was a shabby, crumbling, ancient castle. she couldn't hurt anypony in there. she ran inside, with Hercules nestled in her mane, and slammed the large doors behind her. she fell to her hooves and sobbed. she had nearly killed somepony! she never should have come back. the mayor was right, she was a monster.


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8: A BLAST FROM THE PAST

twilight was running through the snow, trying to catch up with sunset shimmer, but she was way too far ahead for twilight to see her. when she ran into ponyville, everypony was in a panic. the pegasi were franticly using rain clouds to put out a fire at city hall. but the fire was not like normal fire, the flames were black! "princess twilight!" the mayor cried. "what is it Mrs. mayor?" twilight asked. "you must help us, look what that horrible mare did to our town, look what she did to me!" the mare held up her hoof, all that was there was a burn, but since the flames were black, the burn was a grayish color. "you mean sunset shimmer?" she asked the mayor nodded. "no, she wouldn't do this, not on purpose" twilight defended. rainbow dash, rarity, and spike were running after her and finally caught up with her. "twilight, what happened here?" asked rarity. "did sunset shimmer do all this!?" snapped rainbow dash. "she nearly killed me!" accused the mayor, "it's just a burn from the fire" "HER fire!" the mayor replied with a hint of fear. "it was an accident, she was scared, she would never do any of this on purpose" twilight explained. "well we can't just sit here with that mare in the everfree forest" "yes, princess twilight must stop her before she attacks again" "she must go, she has the power" the citizens of ponyville were all suggesting that twilight go into the everfree forest to find sunset shimmer. at that moment twilight remembered what she found in the spell book the other night. a 'pure of heart' spell, no doubt that this dark magic was coming from sunset's heart. without another word, twilight teleported herself into the canterlot library. she tore through the books until she found it. "ahah! pure of heart spell" twilight read the instructions for the spell, it was a little more complicated than she had hoped. it involved a potion and the ingredients are some she had never even heard of, and others she would need to travel very far to retrieve. one part of the spell was in an ancient language even twilight didn't understand! she tore the page out of the book and placed it in her pocket. twilight teleported back to ponyville and ponies crowded around her again. "listen!" she shouted. "I am going to go into the everfree forest to see zecora, she will know how to help sunset shimmer!" twilight announced. "but twilight, you dun know what sunset shimmer's capable of, she could hert ya real bad" applejack exclaimed. "applejack, sunset is my friend, she would never hurt me" twilight removed her gown and tiara and gave them to rarity and replaced it with a warm cloak. spike climbed onto her back and she galloped into the forest to find her friend.

twilight had reached zecora's tree in minutes, mostly because she ran the whole way. she knocked on the door and zecora opened it to let her in. "twilight sparkle these woods, the plants begin to die, may you know the reason why?" zecora asked in her rhyming sentences. "let's just say, an old friend" twilight replied. "zecora, this old friend of mine, she has dark magic in her heart, and I need to know why" twilight explained. "I have this spell, but the last part is in a language I can't read" she pulled the page out of her pocket and gave it to zecora. the zebra read the spell "the page reads that the effects of the spell may be tragic, unless it is combined with the cursed one's dark magic, through friendship and love the dark won't came back, but through fear and pain, her heart will go black" zecora explained. "so the spell can be completed with sunset shimmer's dark magic and she'll be herself again, right?" zecora nodded. "zecora do you still have that memory potion?" twilight asked. "indeed I do, for I don't know what use it may have for you" zecora said. she pulled the glass vial out of one of her bags. the vial's neck was gold with ponies on the head with red gem eyes. the white potion inside would let her see the past, and hopefully let her see why sunset shimmer's heart is so dark. twilight lifted the vial with her magic and took a sip. a moment passed and her eyes began to glow.

twilight was standing in the ancient castle of princess Celestia and princess Luna. sounds of chaos came from the roof. twilight glanced up, princess Celestia and nightmare moon were battling in the sky and Celestia was using the elements of harmony, tears welling up in her eyes, nightmare moon was engulfed in light, but what had twilight's attention was focused on a dark smoke seeping from nightmare moon. it fell to the floor, but princess Celestia wasn't paying attention to it. when twilight looked up again, the mare in the moon silhouette had appeared in the moon. hours passed after Celestia left the ruins, and to twilight's surprise a dark pony in a black cloak came into the throne room. he used his magic to lift the dark smoke into a glass vial. the vial glowed with black light. the pony grinned evilly. twilight was zapped back into zecora's hut. "princess twilight your eyes turned light, did you see why sunset's heart is as black as night?" zecora asked. " I saw a vision from the past, but it doesn't explain why sunset shimmer is using dark magic" twilight replied. "perhaps another sip and you will know, why this darkness brings her great sorrow" twilight took another gulp of the potion, her eyes glowing again.

twilight had been to the canterlot balcony hundreds of times, but this balcony was different. it had a glass-dome roof, and was woven with colorful flowers and plants. it was the garden balcony, twilight saw princess Celestia sitting at the table with a couple and a young mare, two foals were playing around the table. the princess and this family were having tea. the stallion with the sun-gold coat and indigo mane must be the father, the young Pegasus mare must have been a few years younger than twilight, with a white coat and a blue and black mane tied similar to applejack's mane but frizzier, like a punk rock star. the other Pegasus mare was beautiful, her eyes sparkled blue like the evening sky, her coat was as white as snow, her mane was long and flowing, colored with white, ballet pink, and sky blue, her wings were the most magnificent. they faded into a sky-blue and sparkled like her eyes. she must be the stallion's wife. the two foals playing had the same orange coat, the Pegasus colt had blue eyes like his mother, and a blue mane that must have come from his mother and father, the small unicorn filly, had aqua-green eyes like her father, and a fiery mane that was all her own. a few minutes passed and a cloaked stallion entered the garden, it was the same stallion from twilight's vision of nightmare moon! princess Celestia noticed the pony walking towards them. "may I help you sir?" she asked. "yes, I am making a potion, and it seems that, unfortunately, I need the last ingredient, which is a drop of royal blood, your highnesssssss" he said with a hiss in his voice. he pulled out the vial filled with nightmare moon's dark magic. "ridiculous, leave now" the princess snapped. "well, I hate that it would come to this princesssss" sneered the stallion. "guards" called Celestia, the stallion lifted the vial and shattered it on the floor. the black smoke flew from the broken glass, and almost attacked the princess, but before it even touched her, it stopped and looked at the orange filly and instead attacked her! it hit her in the heart and she fell to the floor with a thud. her parents rushed to help her but she was unconscious. a lock of her fiery mane turned a jet black. the dark pony grinned evilly and vanished in a second.

twilight rubbed her eyes, and zecora and spike starred at her. "twilight what happened?" spike asked. "I know why sunset shimmer has a dark heart, and I know what we have to do, come on spike" twilight and spike sped out of zecora's hut, following the trail of dead or burnt plants sunset shimmer had left. she arrived at the part of the forest where Celestia and Luna's ancient castle lied in ruins.


	10. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9: TRUE FRIENDS

sunset shimmer was pacing in the ancient castle tower, trying to come up with a solution to her problem. she couldn't get to the portal in time before ponies came for her, they would through in the dungeon in less than a minute. Hercules was thinking to himself, sunset was so upset, how could he help her. Hercules noticed that sunset shimmer was pacing so much that the rotting floor-boards had been imprinted with sunset's hoof prints by the black stone. sunset shimmer was flooded with fear, she thought about how happy she felt when she first arrived at the human world. she could never name the feeling until now, it wasn't happiness or excitement, it was freedom. she felt like she was free, at least for a while anyway. she was about four-teen and had just found the crumbling manor. she would run around and explore it all the time. but one day, she thought she had seen a mysterious shadow in the basement. when she went to go see it, it was just a rat, but before she realized that, fear began to seep into her thoughts and her mind. when she tripped and fell to the floor, her hand slammed against the stone, turning it to darkness. sunset was terrified. luckily she had kept the pendant princess Celestia gave her, she never took it off after that. over time, darkness found its way into her head, giving her bad thoughts, telling her to do bad things. one day she just... stopped fighting, she let it in, and then her horrible, villainous self had appeared. "sunset shimmer!" called a voice. it was twilight. what was she doing here, sunset didn't want to hurt her, she couldn't be here. sunset shimmer teleported to the throne room. to her misfortune twilight was there, waiting. "sunset, your dress!" twilight gasped. sunset shimmer didn't really notice what terrible shape her gown was in, it was practically in pieces! but she didn't care. "you shouldn't be here" sunset told her. "I came to take you back" twilight replied. "I appreciate it, but I can't go back, I can't stay here, I'm a threat, I need to leave" "you are not a threat, you're my friend, and your friends will help you through this, we can do it together" twilight wasn't listening to her. "I can never be myself, I was cursed when I was little, it turned my heart as black as night, and that's the real reason I became Celestia's student in the first place, don't you get that I'm dangerous, I can't stay, I ran away to protect the ones I love, and I could never put them in danger by me being here" "sunset, you don't have to protect anypony, no one is afraid" twilight pleaded. sunset shimmer was still unconvinced, she hoped that when she was defeated by the elements of harmony, the spell would be broken. it was silly to think such a thing. she began to turn and walk up the stairs back to the tower,

"please don't shut us out again  
please don't slam the door  
you don't have to keep your distance anymore

cause for the first time in forever  
I don't need any proof  
for the first time in forever  
we can fix this hoof and hoof

we can go back and face them together  
you don't have to live in fear  
cause for the first time in forever...  
your friends will be right here"

sunset shimmer wasn't listening, she didn't even think friendship was strong enough to break the dark spell cast over her like a dark cloud.

"twilight, I can't go back home  
my life has changed  
I can't be myself  
I feel I'm in a cage"

twilight was determined, which was part of what made her a good friend, but sunset shimmer couldn't have friends. she would only put them in danger.

"yah but..."

"I know  
you mean well  
but leave me be  
it was foolish to think I could be free  
I'll stay away then you'll all be safe from me"

twilight wasn't about to let a friend walk away like that, then she pulled out the page with the pure of heart spell!

"actually you don't"

"what do mean I don't?"

"you don't have to stay away"

"please just stay away"

"I have a spell that makes your heart as bright as day"

sunset was stunned, a spell to reverse the dark curse put on her when she was just a filly. the thought seemed impossible!

"what?" sunset gasped. "I found a very powerful spell that reverses your curse, forever" twilight smiled.  
"forever?" "yes, but I need your dark magic for it"  
"but I can't... it won't work" sunset cried. "sure it will, I know it will...

cause for the first time in forever..."  
"I'm such a fool, I can't be free..."

"you don't have to be afraid..."  
"no escape from the dark inside me..."

"we can work this out together..."  
"I can't control the curse..."

"you will have the friends you've made..."  
"please I'll only make things worse!..."

"don't panic..."  
"there's so much fear..."

"we'll make your heart shine bright..."  
"no one's safe with me here..."

"we can face this thing together..."  
"no!..."

"we'll be with you through the weather..."  
"ahhhhhahah..."

"...and everything will be alright"  
"I CAN'T!"

sunset slammed her hooves on the floor, and the black stone rose in spires around her in a circle. she fell to the floor in tears. as much as she wanted to be herself again, that would never be. when she was young, and still the princess's student, she had tried every reversal spell she could find in the royal library, even some spells in the 'starswirl the bearded' wing. everything had failed or made things worse, so to keep the ones she loved safe, she left. twilight teleported into the dark circle, she placed her hoof on the fiery mare's shoulder. "we can stop the darkness within you, we just need to try... please" twilight begged. "don't you get it, I can't, nopony can" a tear fell from her eye and dropped onto the floor. "but, we have this" twilight held the page with the 'pure of heart' spell, sunset looked at it curiously. "this is the spell I was talking about" explained twilight. sunset shimmer read the page carefully. "I had heard of this one, but I had never tried it, I know where to find most of these ingredients" she sighed. "good, let's get started, where's the first ingredient?" twilight asked. "well, this one is not far from ponyville, it would only take a day's journey, maybe even less" sunset shimmer was still not convinced. "sunset, I know that you're afraid, but you need to find the courage to try" twilight encouraged. the fiery mare began to rise to her hooves. she knew twilight was right, she at least had to try.

princess Luna was walking to her quarters when a fiery bird caught her by surprise. it was Philomena (to most ponies.) "sumac, what took you so long? is it true? is the lost element really to be found?" princess Luna asked. Philomena, or, sumac, talked in a deep male voice "yes my queen, I have seen the chest myself, but I unfortunately do not have the keys to open it, only the breezies know where they are, and..." "silence, I'm thinking, I have been planning this for many moons, and I think I know how to get rid of my sister, the great princess Celestia, for good" Luna grinned. "how your majesty?" asked sumac. "I will stage a little accident for princess twilight, and who will take her place as princess? who will be the element of magic? all hope will be lost, and then I will swoop in and take over, the hero of equestria, me! Celestia would be so honored, and of course I will get rid of her too, and I shall take my rightful place, on the throne!" Luna praised. "except for one tiny detail your majesty, Celestia has arranged a betrothal between princess twilight and prince blueblood, next month" sumac explained nervously. "WHAT, that spoiled brat has been betrothed, do you know what that means?" asked Luna. sumac shook his head. "of course you don't you're still a bird, inheritance is what it means! if the prince marries that prissy pony, then my plan is ruined!... ahhh, but say that princess twilight were to go missing, then the wedding would be canceled, prince blueblood would be out of the way, and once he and his parents are long gone, I'll snap her neck like a twig, awe, I love it when a plan falls into place, don't you, I can almost taste the victory" princess Luna laughed sinisterly. "now, are my followers hidden well?" princess Luna asked. "yes your majesty, deep in the everfree forest, nopony is brave enough to go there" sumac explained. "good, and I think we will need that, sunset shimmer pony to stay dark for, let's say, forever" Luna hissed. "but, why?" sumac repeated. "you ask too many questions sumac, and because, she was the filly you had cursed with my dark magic all those years ago, remember, you did it to keep her from finding her true light, and discovering her true powers, if she finds the lost element, she will lose her darkness and I will go back to my extremely uncomfortable stone prison, I can't take another thousand years of watching those, ghastly humans again, she must remain dark" Luna explained. "yes, but your highness, princess twilight and sunset shimmer have become friends, and princess twilight is about to travel on a journey to find a cure for sunset shimmer's dark heart" sumac replied. "you're sure of this?" the princes said in a calm voice that would scare most ponies. "I saw it with my own eyes your majesty" replied the phoenix. "sumac, do you know the dangers of a flame?" asked princess Luna. she lit a candle with her dark magic, the only light of the palace hallway. "it burns, and it can destroy everything in its path, or fade away like a weakling, but fire is not dangerous, as long as you know how it's controlled" Luna explained. "your majesty?" sumac was very confused. "control it" Luna snapped. she blew out the candle, causing the hall to go black.

"twilight, must you go now?" asked rarity. "yes, if I'm to gather all the ingredients in time..." "in time for what?" rainbow dash interrupted. "the spell mentioned a 'blood moon' an eclipse of the moon, it happens only once in a generation and the spell will only work at the time of the blood moon, if not, it could go terribly wrong" explained twilight. "well, then it's to important for you to put off, we will help you get ready" rarity chimed. "yah, if sunset shimmer is gonna go dark, and this here spell will fix 'er up, then let's get to it" applejack added. twilight wished that sunset shimmer could see what wonderful friends she had, but she was too afraid to hurt them, so for now she was staying with zecora. twilight just hoped she could make the potion in time.


	11. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10: A JOURNEY BEGINS

"bye twilight, have fun!" called pinkie pie as twilight's train to the unicorn range was pulling out of the station. unicorn range was where a rare plant grew, it's leaves, when grinded to a pulp and juiced, were the first ingredient for the potion. the plant was called Aconitum, or as most called it, Wolf's bane. "goodbye darling, we hope to see you soon!" rarity waved her off with a silk handkerchief. sunset shimmer had come to the station to see twilight off. it was the least she could do, since twilight was making this journey for her in the first place. "good luck twilight" sunset said under her breath. Hercules nested in sunset shimmer's mane and barking his goodbyes, getting a few nervous glances from the other ponies at the station, they were probably nervous he was a big dog or something. twilight and spike waved goodbye out of the train window. "alright spike, let's start calculating where to find Aconitum" said twilight. she pulled out her map of the unicorn range to start calculating the best places to find the flower. "I think we should start looking here" twilight pointed to a canyon that was lined with a river running through it. "are you sure twilight?, that canyon is pretty deep" spike acknowledged. "spike, it's fine, the flower apparently grows on top of the canyon, not in it" twilight replied. when twilight wasn't looking, two mysterious cloaked ponies slipped into the train to follow her. "that is her mamba" one said quietly. "I can see her viper, now shah! she can't see us, not yet" the other replied. the two ponies remained distant from the princess throughout the train ride. when the train pulled into the unicorn range station, twilight and spike exited the train, viper and mamba following them. "okay spike, let's go, we only have a week before the blood moon, we need to get going" twilight told spike. viper and mamba gasped silently. "how does she know of the blood moon?" mamba hissed. "she must tell nopony else of it, we will have to move quicker than we thought" viper replied. "how quick?" asked mamba. "we strike tonight, after she falls asleep, if she is looking for a flower in the canyons, then she will no doubt have to make camp for the night" explained viper.

"twilight, we still have to find the flower, and you're going to sleep?" spike asked. "spike, we need to be well rested, we have a big hike up the canyon tomorrow" replied twilight. "but you said we only have a week to gather all the ingredients for the spell, why can't we just look now?" spike complained. twilight knew the answer to that was that flowers bloomed in the day, so the flower would be even more difficult to find at night, but she told spike an answer he would listen to. "because spike, eight of the ten most poisonous snakes in equestria live in those canyons, and they all hunt at night, we start searching in the morning" twilight said before climbing into her sleeping bag and falling asleep. spike was shivering a bit though, it was the desert so he had a reason to be cold, but he was terrified of snakes. which made no sense because spike was a dragon, a close relative to the snake. spike climbed into his travel bed and tried to go to sleep, but what twilight had said about snakes was keeping him awake. the sound of a twig snapping spooked him, and he shivered with terror. "who... who's there?" he trembled. spike knew he had to be brave, still clinging to his pillow, he stepped quietly into the darkness. when he was a good distance away from camp, a metal cage slammed down around him. "hey!" he snapped. two ponies were trying to dragon-nap him! "hey, we did it, let's get out of here" said mamba. viper, looking very annoyed, waved mamba over. "come here" he said, he hit mamba in the forehead with his hoof. "listen you idiot, our job was to capture the princess, not her pet!" viper hissed. "hey, I'm not a pet!" spike snapped. he pulled at the bars as hard as he could, he even tried his magical fire, but the bars were made of iron, which causes all magic to fizzle and renders it useless. "now, give that cage" snapped viper. the sinister pony took one of spike's spikes and pulled it out with a yank. "hey! that hurt!" spike cried. "that's the idea squirt" viper said with a hiss in his voice. viper continued to pull out spikes and scales on the little dragon's back. he cried out in pain, loud enough to wake twilight back at camp. "spike?" she said groggily, another of spike's yelps woke her up. "spike? where are you? what's wrong?" twilight stepped lively to spike. she saw him in an iron cage, "spike?" she asked. "twilight, these crazy ponies are trying to pony-nap you!" spike panicked. a shadow rose behind twilight, she turned around and a burlap bag scooped her into it. "okay, now we can get out of here" said viper.

"I order you to set me free!" twilight commanded. the pony-nappers had locked her in an old dungeon transportation cart after they took her. "yes princess" mamba reached for the lock, viper whipped a black snake in his direction, the snake bit his hoof. "OUCH!" mamba cried. the snake coiled around viper's back again, "you bonehead, we wait for sumac here, he'll tell us what to do with her" viper explained. "but I thought sumac was at camp preparing to move out in a few days" mamba replied. viper scowled, "I hate it when you're right" he snapped. "well, what do we do?" asked mamba "we take them into the forest, there's an old abandoned house there, let's go" viper and mamba hooked themselves up to the cart and pulled it deeper into the forest. "what do you think they're planning?" spike asked. "I don't know, but one thing is for sure, we have to get out of here" twilight replied. the cart pulled away deep enough into the forest that even the moon's light was no longer visible.

"twilight, you are wanted in ponyville, your friends wanted to know how your trip was" called princess Celestia. it had been two days since twilight had left for the unicorn range. princess twilight had said she would be back in two days, but princess Celestia had not seen twilight all day. princess Luna was helping her look for princess twilight. they entered her guest room where she stayed whenever she came to canterlot. it was a very large bedroom, including a canopy bed and several cases, filled with books. the luxury of princess-ship, as rarity called it. "where could she be?" princess Celestia asked. "is that something on her desk, sister" princess Luna picked up a parchment inside an envelope on princess twilight's desk and gave it to her sister. Celestia opened it and read the letter. she gasped, "it says that she has run away!" princess Luna put on her best, shocked, expression, "so that she won't marry prince blueblood" princess Celestia was shocked, twilight had never done anything like this before. "well, this is dreadful, what if king Zeus cancels the wedding, the kingdom will be doomed" princess Luna said. "we must find her at once" Celestia yelped, "of course sister, but you must relax, I will send out a dozen search parties to look for her" Philomena flew in with a tea tray in her talons. she set it on the desk gently. "here, have some tea to calm your nerves" said princess Luna with a slight hiss that Celestia didn't notice. Celestia lifted to tea cup to her mouth with her sun gold magic to take a sip, but Luna didn't dare touch the liquid, all she said was "to your, immortal good, health" the princess sipped at the tea, not noticing princess Luna's evil grin.


	12. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11: A ROYAL DISASTER

"this is an insult to our kingdom!" snapped king Zeus of the Smokey mountains. His wife, queen briar rose and him had come to canterlot to discuss the wedding, but hearing of princess twilight's running away, had angered them tremendously. "I demand that we cancel the wedding, if princess twilight does not return by the end of today!" demanded king Zeus. the king had sort of an anger problem, so his wife helped manage the kingdom more gently. "I am sure we will find her" princess Celestia replied. flash sentry from the crystal empire had come with princess cadence and shinning armor when they got the news that twilight was missing. "I am as worried as you are your majesty, but my search parties have not found a trace of her" said princess Luna. "I don't see why she would run away, your highness" said flash. "well, see for yourself" princess Luna gave him the letter twilight had written. he read it thoroughly, and sniffed the parchment, it was scented with rose perfume. "rose perfume?" he muttered "where was this found?" he asked. "on princess twilight's desk" Luna replied, flash thought that princess Luna was acting suspicious. "perhaps I should look for the princess with one of your parties your highness" he suggested. "maybe you should stick to guarding the archives" princess Luna snapped. "we will give twilight till the end of the day to return, or the wedding is off!" king Zeus boomed. he and his wife left the throne room and exited the palace. leaving flash to his thoughts, "she never scented her parchments before, why do it now?" he murmured.

flash sentry had caught a train to ponyville a few hours after the discussion with king Zeus and queen briar rose. he needed to speak to somepony very important. he came up to the carousel boutique and knocked on the door. a white mare with a styled violet mane opened the door for him. he recognized her as twilight's friend rarity. "welcome to carousel boutique sir, may you be buying something for a special mare?" rarity asked. "actually no miss rarity, I came to speak to a new seamstress of yours, miss sunset shimmer" flash explained. "oh yes, she is in the work room over there" rarity pointed to a room in the back. "thank you" he said politely. sunset was in the work room sewing rein-stones onto a saddle-bag, which was bright enough to make him blink his eyes. it was odd how much this mare looked like him, they had the exact same coat, and the same look of bravery that his mother told him he had. "sunset shimmer?" he asked. "yah?" she replied, she could tell this was flash, but by the formal way he addressed her, and the royal guard's armor he was wearing, this was the flash sentry from this world. "I doubt that your buying a dress, so, what is it?" she asked. "well, I bring news of princess twilight's journey" he replied. in an instant, sunset shimmer transformed from a serious pony to an excited and beaming filly, "yes! I can't believe it, twilight actually found the spell!" she cheered, "um, actually..." "I have to pack, I have to book a train to the castle..." "I here because..." "I should buy a dress, huh what am I talking about, I make dresses... wait, that is why you're here right?" she bantered. "I am sorry, but no, I came to tell you that princess twilight is missing" flash explained. "what?!" sunset was silenced by flash after she said that. "shhhhhh" he hushed, he didn't want others to know what he was about to say next. "I suspect that princess Luna, has taken the princess off somewhere so that the royal wedding will be canceled" he explained, "why would she do that?" sunset asked. "I don't know, but I need your help" he exclaimed "what can I do?" "pretend to be princess twilight sparkle" "what!" "shhhhhhhh" flash shhhed. "are you crazy!" sunset whispered "if you can be princess twilight, just for a little while, I can trick princess Luna to tell me where princess twilight is" flash explained. "pretend to be royalty, that is insane, I could get thrown in prison, or worse" she hissed, she didn't even want to think of what the guards would do to her if she was caught pretending to be a princess. "as can I, but you are the only pony I could think of who could help" he said "why me?" asked sunset. "you are the only unicorn I know who comes even close to the princess's magical level, it has to be you" sunset's eyes widened, this was crazy, but twilight had journeyed all over equestria for a spell to help sunset that might not even work, and had gotten herself pony-napped in the process! "she's in real trouble isn't she... count me in!"


	13. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12: A NEW LOOK

flash had taken a royal carriage to ponyville, now he was pulling it and sunset shimmer was hiding inside. her hamster had come along too, him using her mane as his little perch. though sunset had told him that Hercules was part wolf, which was pretty cool to him. when they had reached the palace, he pulled the carriage to the back entrance. the two ponies snuck into the palace, and when other ponies asked them where they were going, flash just said "royal business" and technically it was, since sunset was going to be a princess, well, sort of.

flash opened twilight's bedroom door and sunset stepped lightly inside. Hercules wasted no time making himself at home, he leapt onto the bed and barked joyfully. "Hercules" sunset sighed, she glanced around, and leapt onto the bed too, Hercules yelped as he jumped out of the way. "nice" sunset smiled. flash cleared his throat and sunset shimmer walked over to where he was standing. he was sorting through different bottles on one of twilight's potion shelves, he chose one and opened it up. it was a sickly green color, and smelled like swamp grass. sunset covered her nose with her hoof. "what is that?" she snapped, "a potion that I acquired from the changeling kingdom, but not to worry, it is not dangerous, it will just make you look like princess twilight sparkle" flash explained. he opened the bottle and the liquid rose out of the vial on it's own, and wrapped sunset shimmer in a green silk-like smoke, when a few moments passed, the smoke was swept back into the bottle and sunset shimmer was a completely different pony. her mane had been straightened and dyed, her coat was the color of a light warm violet, and her cutie mark was a six-pointed magenta star with smaller white stars around it. all that remained of her were her eyes, they remained their aqua-green color. "it's uncanny" flash exclaimed. "um, aren't we missing an itty-bitty detail?" sunset pointed to his Pegasus wings and he looked at her own back. it was bare, and had no wings. "I had thought of that" he pulled a fancy box from the shelf as well, on it was a label to a shop in canterlot, "Madame fleur de lis's masquerade boutique" inside was a pair of, very realistic, artificial Pegasus wings, which matched the color of her artificial purple coat. the wings attached perfectly to her back, and since they were magical, she could move them and even flap them a little bit. but they were part of a costume, so they were too delicate to fly with. "now, to test your new look out on the king and queen" said flash. sunset shimmer was nervous, this was way bigger than some old curse, well, not really, but it still was big, as in prison big.

"that is it! as of right now, the wedding between my son, prince blueblood, and princess twilight sparkle, is canceled" king Zeus sighed, princess Celestia was heartbroken, and feeling sick, not like sick as in nervous or sad, sick as in sick. she sighed sorrowfully, princess Luna on the other hoof, was sinisterly satisfied. "your majesties wait" exclaimed flash as he burst into the throne room. the royals waited for him to continue, "um, may I present, princess twilight sparkle" he said. "twilight?" asked princess Celestia. sunset shimmer walked calmly into the throne room, walking hesitantly, but she relaxed once she came closer to the princesses. she must have been too relaxed because she tripped over her own hoof and hit the floor with a thud. she quickly rose to her hooves and brushed herself off, "princess twilight, how lovely for you to return" said queen briar rose. "twilight, where have you been?" asked princess cadence. "I am deeply sorry, it was selfish and wrong of me to run away" sunset smiled innocently. "well, you're back now, and that is all that matters" cadence replied. "I still think we should cancel the wedding" king Zeus muttered, "your highness, I do believe you said by the end of the day, and the sun has not yet set, princess twilight has returned" princess Celestia explained, "well, then, the wedding between prince blueblood and princess twilight is back on" queen briar rose smiled. "wonderful, now, twilight, I am sure that you are exhausted, let us all turn in for the night" said princess Luna, with a slight irritation that nopony noticed. everypony left the throne room, princess Luna exiting last, but to be blocked by Hercules, he was growling and barking angrily at Luna. "ahhh, who let this mangy rodent in here?!" she snapped, she used her magic to push Hercules out of her way, leaving a pine needle on Hercules's fur, "why so jumpy princess Luna?" asked flash. "well, excuse me for being attacked by a desease ridden rat!" she hissed. flash rolled his eyes and exited the throne room. leaving princess Luna alone with her thoughts. viper and mamba had alerted her that princess twilight had been abducted along with her dragon pet, but why had she told Celestia that she'd been pony-napped, it would seem like she would tell her former mentor for sure, unless, those idiots let her escape! and she had forgotten to tell the princess of her capture somehow, she was not going to take this lightly, Luna was going to teach those morons a lesson.

"I demand that you unlock this door this instant!" twilight demanded formally. "there's no use in commands your highness" viper hissed. the two pony-nappers had taken her to an abandoned house in the everfree forest, she had made a special animal call in the prison cart to try to call to owlishious for help. but he was nowhere around, they must be too deep into the forest for anypony to find them. spike was pacing, deep in thought, "twilight, I think I have an idea!" spike beamed, twilight came closer to him as he explained his plan to her, "spike that's brilliant!" she whispered, "huh, I know" he laughed. twilight had used a transparency spell before, but not like this, she pulled the white sheet off of the ratty old bed and pulled it over her head as she cast the spell. spike then uttered his part of the plan, "somepony, help!" he cried. "what is it pipsqueak?" mamba snapped, he walked over to where the cry for help came from, and opened the room door. inside was the cowering dragon, starring in horror at a floating bed sheet, mamba yelped "it's a ghost! get it viper!" viper grimaced at the idiotic changeling. "mamba, this is just a trick, there are no such things as gho..." said viper as he pulled the sheet from the air, beneath it was a transparent, glowing pony hovering in the air, her eyes white as moonlight. "AAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the two changelings shrieked like fillies and ran out of the abandoned house in seconds. twilight transformed herself back into her normal form. she lifted spike onto her back with her magic and sprinted out of the rotting house, "great thinking spike" twilight praised, she galloped deeper into the forest. "twilight, do you even know where we are?" spike asked, "no, I've never been in this part of the forest before" she replied, when twilight was sure that they were miles away from where viper and mamba were, she slowed to a steady trot. she looked around at the dark and eerie trees, when she heard a twig snap. she halted in her hooves, "did you hear that?" she whispered, "no, what?" spike replied, a loud and terrifying shriek came from deep within the woods, "okay, now I hear it" spike said in fear. he and twilight were shaking with terror, the shriek sounded again, twilight fell the ground and covered her eyes out of fear of what she would see. the shaking of a branch just above her head made her cower even more, "now, what are you doin' in my part of the forest?" asked a scratchy voice with an English accent. twilight lifted one eyelid to see the source of the question. it was a big mistake to look at her, it was the most horrific creature twilight had seen since changelings, it was the harpy celeano, and twilight had made the foolish mistake to come into her territory. "ey, I asked you a question!" celeano squawked, twilight was too petrified by celeano's appearance to answer, she had the head of a pony, but instead of a nose, she had a sharp beak with jagged teeth jutting out here and there, her wings were that of a great bird, but she obviously didn't care how they looked because their feathers were ruffled and ratty, she had no hooves, just sharp and terrifying talons to tear you up in only seconds if she wanted to, her eyes were the worst of it, her whites were not white at all, but as black as a moonless night, and the color of deep blood stained her irises, her pupils sharp and vertical as if they were daggers. "if you think that you're too good to answer to me, then just who do you think you are?" celeano snapped, twilight muttered her name under her breath, "ey, speak up!" she growled, "princess twilight" twilight whimpered, celeano burst out laughing, "if you are the princess, then I'm a beautiful and elegant duchess" she squawked sarcastically, twilight became more defensive. "but, I AM the princess" she pleaded with the harpy, "well, say you are the princess twilight sparkle, what are you doin' out here? nothing's out here but trees and the occasional animal here and there" celeano explained, she picked her sharp teeth with a twig, "they make good eats" she smirked. twilight nearly chuckled at the thought of how fluttershy would react if celeano said that to her, she wouldn't take it lightly. "but, I was just on my patrol through the woods, and I went up to the castle to see the good life, and I'll be darned if I didn't see princess twilight eatin' dinner with Celestia and Luna" the harpy told her, "unless you're some imposter" twilight narrowed her eyes at the ugly harpy, she was not some imposter and celeano should be ashamed of even thinking so! she was about to scold her when the harpy piped up, "now I already got a bad rep with ponies, and I don't need some copy-cat princess makin' it worse, so I suggest you move along" she shoved twilight back with her large wing, twilight blew air from her nose to show her irritation with this creature, "now I'm warning you, if you don't..." twilight started before celeano interrupted her, "I said move along!" she shrieked her terrible shriek and flapped her wings to look bigger than she actually was, which made twilight cower and slowly back away from the harpy. celeano lifted off her branch and flew back into the shadows. twilight grunted and walked back through the forest to try to find somepony who could help them.


	14. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13: THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

sunset shimmer had went to sleep after having dinner with the princesses, it was a first eating with princess Luna, and she apparently was Celestia's sister. she stretched her legs and yawned, "I thought I was dreaming" she smiled, it was amazing how luxurious the bedroom was, life for a princess was pretty cool. a knock sounded at the door, which startled Hercules and made him bark excitedly. "Hercules, shhhh, we need to, act like we belong here, we don't want to get caught" sunset cleared her throat, "come in" she said formally. a maid walked in with a tea tray filled with all sorts of breakfast foods, eggs, toast, apple slices with caramel dipping sauce, and a glass of orange juice. "your breakfast my lady" the maid said as she set the tray down on the bed, "really? in bed?" sunset asked, "um, as always your highness" she replied. sunset examined the food on the tray, "there's so much food here! want some?" asked sunset, "oh, I couldn't your majesty" the maid said shyly, "but there's enough here to feed the entire royal guard! I can't eat all on my own, here, take some" sunset took an apple slice and smeared some caramel on it and offered it to the maid. "oh, um, thank you your highness" the maid smiled shyly. "I'll draw you bath, would you like lavender oil, bubbles, or mineral salts?" she asked while sunset was devouring the eggs, "ha, everything!" she beamed. the maid chuckled to herself and went to draw the princess's bath.

sunset sighed with relief, even though she still had to wear her concealing amulet, life was pretty good. "haah, I may never come out" she sighed, Hercules nuzzled her cheek. he squeaked, which wasn't like him. "Hercules, are you sick, is their something in your throat?" he squeaked again. "Hercules, you're squeaking, that's not like you" said sunset. he sighed. "hahhow fella..."

"i can see i when you're feeling low  
you can't hide that from me  
you're no softly thread, purely bread,  
so why keep trying to be  
cause you're more than that  
you're not just some rat  
i wish you could see the you i see..."

Hercules squeaked again, "hmm, no, i say...

if you bark, celebrate it  
you've got a spark, seranade it  
lewis and clark, should've had a pet, like you

and if what you are, is a strange you  
doesn't mean, you should change you  
only means, you should change your point of view..."

princes blueblood knocked on the door, but sunset didn't notice, her mane had fallen into it's original style and she was now in a fluffy bathrobe, and holding Hercules in her hooves. "princess twilight?"

"your eyes shine  
you fetch just fine  
to thine old self, be true

your bow-wow makes them say 'wow  
it's how i know you're you...

you don't need the bows or tiara  
bid your woes, sianara  
trust your nose, cause' it knows the way to go

when you chase your tail, you're enchanting  
spirits sail, when you're panting  
when you wail, you're a rodent romeo..."

prince blueblood was enchanted by the mare's beautiful voice. it was rude to eavesdrop, so he just walked away.

"there is not one hair of you  
that i would rearange...  
i love you the way you are, and that will never change...  
that, will, never, change"

"rrrrrruph" barked Hercules in agreement. "that's my boy" sunset replied. she scratched behind Hercules's ears the way he liked, making him wag his little stub tail. a clock chime startled her, and she glanced at the clock. her eyes widened at the time, "oh no, it's two o'clock already! we need to get going, now!" sunset rushed to the mirror and brushed her mane down until it was flat like twilight's mane so she looked the part. she practically flew out the door and into the hallway to get to the throne room. she stopped in her tracks when she heard voices coming from princess Celestia's bedroom. she knew it was none of her business, but her curiosity overpowered her and sunset leaned against the door to listen, "... coat dry, mouth sores, cloudy eyes, natural mane color fading..." "I sound like a corpse" princess Celestia joked, "sense of humor perfectly healthy" said the doctor, sunset shimmer didn't know that princess Celestia was sick, she seemed fine the day before, and for an immortal being like Celestia to get as sick as the doctor was saying was nearly impossible! "ehem" a voice sounded behind her. it was princess Luna, shadowing over the mare in her violet coat, "oh, hello princess Luna" she said innocently. "what are you doing here?" sunset asked, "I heard that my sister was not well, and I thought that you would be in the throne room to meet your future fiancé'" she replied. fiancé', what in equestria...? "oh, yes, my fiancé', I was just going to go do that, Farwell princess Luna" she said politely as she innocently trotted away, not far enough to not hear princess Luna's next comment, "eavesdropping little brat" she whispered. hmm, sunset would have thought that the princess of the night would be more... nice, but it seemed that Luna was up to something just as flash had said. in the throne room, prince blueblood and his father were waiting the arrival of princess twilight, princess cadence and prince shinning armor were waiting as well. "I do hope princess twilight accepts this engagement gift from the Smokey mountain's kingdom" prince blueblood said politely. he presented a box to princess cadence, she opened it to find a one of a kind, extremely rare, rainbow phoenix feather quill. "thank you so much your majesties, princess twilight will be quite pleased" princess cadence praised, prince blueblood was looking forward to seeing the princess again. it would be good for them both to get to know each other. he glanced at the stain-glass portrait of her becoming an alicorn, she was pretty, but he felt like he needed to know her on the inside as well as the outside. just then, princess twilight burst into the throne room, clearly out of breath. "sooo sorry I'm late" she gasped, her dog had trotted up behind her, blueblood was told that princess twilight had a baby dragon for an assistant, guess not. "um, twilight, this is prince blueblood, of the Smokey mountains, and he would be delighted to ask you for a tour of canterlot" princess cadence said formally, sunset was sure he had been to the grand galloping gala, and that he'd seen enough of canterlot, she raised her eyebrow and said, "I'll do you one better, I'll give you a tour of ponyville" she smiled. "I do not believe that a stallion of royal blood should be in... ponyville" king Zeus said in a rude tone, "something tells me that ponyville is beautiful" the prince smiled while looking at sunset shimmer, she blushed. "well, right this way your highness..." "please, you can call me blueblood" blueblood interrupted, "and call me sunse... I mean, twilight, call me twilight" sunset cleared her throat, "right this way blueblood" sunset shimmer waved her hoof forward to lead him to the train station.


	15. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14: THE PRINCE AND THE TIMBERWOLF

"so, granny smith basically founded ponyville?" blueblood asked. "yep, applejack told me herself" sunset replied, "...and she's still alive" he asked, sounding a bit more concerned, "alive and well, and the way she describes the pools in the forest in her time, I would have loved to see it" she sighed with longing, "well, let's" suggested blueblood, "what?" "let's go to one of those ponds in the forest, you said it yourself you've always wanted to see them" sunset shimmer thought for a moment, she was supposed to be giving him a tour of ponyville, and the forest was technically part of ponyville, what the hay, "well, let's go" she smiled.

"there it is" said sunset shimmer, she lead blueblood to an incredible pond in the "safe" part of the forest. it was a medium sized pond with lily-pads, water lilies, and dragonflies resting on the surface. the sunlight shone through the trees onto the crystalline waters, making them shimmer. "come with me" sunset smiled, she carefully put her hoof in the water, it was cool against her violet coat. blueblood followed her into the water and they swam through the water lilies together. sunset shimmer ducked under the water, blueblood followed her, she blew bubbles from her nose to mess with him a little bit, the bubbles clouded his vision and when he looked back, twilight was gone. but she reappeared behind him, when she tapped his shoulder, making him jump under the cool waves. sunset giggled, she kicked through the clear waters, blueblood just watched the adventurous mare under water, swimming along without a care in the world. he coughed up some bubbles then surfaced for air, twilight's head popped up shortly after, "are you okay?" she asked, "never, chah, better" he said with a cough. the two ponies climbed out of the water and sunset shook off the water vigorously, getting more water on the prince. he just smiled and whipped water droplets from his sun-gold mane, making sunset blush. blueblood looked into her aqua-green eyes, and saw a mare who longed for adventure, but for some reason could not grasp it, he didn't bother to ask. sunset cleared her throat, "so, have you ever seen ponyville from the top of Eagle Hill?" she asked. Eagle hill was the highest hill in ponyville, you could see everything from there, from city hall all the way to sweet apple acres, it was quite a view. "I would love to" smiled blueblood, the two ponies cantered to Eagle hill together, when they reached the top, it took blueblood's breath away. it was unbelievable, he could see all of ponyville, he could even see the west orchard of sweet apple acres. the cool wind blew through his mane, his mother might have scolded him on the appearance of a prince, but he gave it no mind. and princess twilight looked beautiful with the wind blowing through her lovely mane, her eyes fixed on the small village in front of her. a smell was brought to his nose, roses, he thought. there were rose bushes everywhere on this hill, he had a great idea. he plucked a rose in full bloom with his sun-gold magic, and placed it in twilight's mane. it took her a bit by surprise, but when she glanced at the rose in her mane, she smiled at him. she gazed into his pale-blue eyes, and he starred back at her. all of a sudden her ears pricked up, she listened to the wind, she sniffed the air, she looked around, until her gaze fell on two fillies playing down at the bottom of the hill. sunset shimmer recognized them as diamond tiara and silver spoon, applejack's little sister applebloom told her about them. "what is it?" blueblood asked, sunset wasn't listening, her gaze was locked on a significantly large pile of wood and branches, piled up behind a bush near the fillies. almost immediately as sunset shimmer looked away, the wood shaped and molded itself into a large, wolf-like creature with horrible gold eyes. a timberwolf! it was going to attack those fillies unless she did something. without another word she shouted, "watch out!" as loud as she could, alerting the ponies of ponyville of the everfree forest threat. diamond tiara and silver spoon heard her and ran for cover in ponyville, the timberwolf chasing them. diamond tiara was just about to be safe in ponyville when silver spoon tripped on her own hoof and fell to the ground with a thud. the timberwolf lunged at her, and she would have been horsemeat if sunset shimmer had not jumped in front of the timberwolf, stopping him from consuming silver spoon. the filly ran for cover to hide with her friend, while sunset shimmer fought the wooden creature. she reared up on her back legs and swung her front hooves to fend herself from the wolf. the timberwolf crouched and jumped at the violet alicorn, but she kicked him in the shoulder before he could reach her. sunset thought she hit him in the head to disembody the creature, but the warning cries of ponies told her otherwise. the timberwolf had been hiding and had jumped onto sunset's back, but she bucked wildly to get it off, when that wasn't working she leaped onto her front hooves and flipped onto her back. the move had crushed the timberwolf's right leg, leaving it in scattered pieces on the ground, before he could rise to his wooden paws again, sunset shimmer reared into the air and landed her front hooves on the creature's left leg, shattering it. she blew air from her nose to tell him "get out", he assembled his legs again, running back to the everfree forest, but sunset shimmer stomped on his tail, startling him and now sprinting back to the forest. she grinned devilishly. ponies gathered around her, praising her and thanking her for saving those fillies' lives. even diamond tiara and silver spoon were jumping around her with their thanks. rarity and applejack trotted up to her with their proud faces, "well wasn't that a hooten of a beatin' you gave that there timberwolf twilight" rarity praised, sunset raised her eyebrow at the classy mare, rarity never spoke like that. applejack continued for her "darling, it was so magnificent what you did, those fillies would have been wolf food if not for you!" sunset's eyes widened at her two friends, they were acting very strange, and not like themselves. she shrugged it off, they were probably just in shock from the attack. blueblood trotted up with a grin on his face, "that was amazing!" he gleamed, sunset smiled at him. Philomena, princess Celestia's pet phoenix, flew by and landed on applejack's shoulder. Hercules, who was watching from ponyville, growled at her, he didn't like how Philomena was looking at them. he growled at her, and the fiery bird snapped her beak at Hercules, he whimpered and scurried off. "thank you so much for saving us princess twilight!" diamond tiara praised. "it was nothing, I just ran in without thinking" sunset replied. while she was talking, rainbow dash flew in beside rarity, and Philomena whispered to the three mares, "you three keep an eye on her, our queen has plans for her" he grinned evilly and watched the princess trot off with prince blueblood.


	16. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15: LOCKED IN AGAIN!

princess Luna had ordered her lunar guards to take her to the house that princess twilight was being held, viper and mamba had told her that everything was fine. she knocked on the door impatiently, viper opened the door a crack, "ah, my esteemed queen med..." princess Luna pushed the door open with her sickly red magic. she looked around the abandoned house, "how did she escape?" she asked calmly. "what ever do you mean your highness?" he asked, "the princess you idiot, I know she escaped, but why didn't she tell the princess she'd been captured?" Luna asked. she had been watching princess twilight and prince blueblood in ponyville the other day, it made her nearly vomit to see those two love-birds together, it was the complete opposite of princess twilight to blindly rush into a dangerous situation like that. she had been suspicious of the princess ever since she had returned, every move she made gave away her true self, each step, each trot, each breath, they were all her spies, and the biggest clue were her eyes. everypony knew princess twilight had dark violet eyes, but this twilight's eyes were an aqua-green. outside the old house, flash was secretly listening to the princess and these ugly changeling creatures. he had followed Luna's carriage to the crumbling building, and he had to say, the house was very familiar. "now, if you two don't find her my plans to be queen will be ruined, and I won't have my empire fall thanks to two idiotic ponies like you" Luna snapped, "queen? Luna?" he whispered, a loud screech came from overhead, he looked up at Philomena flying into the ratty house. he took a step back, making a twig snap under his hoof. "going somewhere?" asked a deep and threatening voice, he whipped around to come face-to-face with princess Luna. "how can you be queen?" he demanded, princess Luna uttered a deep hiss and a forked tongue slid from her lips, flash watched in horror as part of her flowing, starry mane turned into a living, green, red-eyed snake! "take him" Luna growled. before he could react, viper and mamba attacked him, and locked him in iron chains, heavy enough to hold his wings to the ground so there would be no escape, chains were also attached to his legs and head. the two changelings dragged him away, leaving Luna to shift her snake-mane back into it's flowing form.

twilight and spike had been walking for hours, until they came across a town, twilight recognized it as dodge junction. ponies were everywhere, having fun and partying, there must have been some celebration going on. twilight stopped in front of one of the dress shops, when the door whooshed open, a mare about her age, walked out with her head down. "you're fired!" a familiar voice snapped, a light pink mare with a styled purple mane, and blue, argil ascot stomped out of the shop. twilight felt dread and anger fill her up, this mare was suri polomare. twilight had met her in manehattan when rarity was competing in fashion week, and suri had stolen her dress designs. suri looked twilight over, "and who are you?" she asked, twilight was about to answer when suri interrupted "oh, whatever, you'll have to do" suri grabbed twilight and yanked her into the shop, inside there were beautiful western style dresses, hats, saddle-bags, and shoes, but where suri was taking twilight was more... depressing. it was the work room, where suri's workers made her designs into dresses, shoes, ect. inside was another familiar face, coco pommel, twilight met her at fashion week also, but she was a lot nicer than suri. but what was strange was that twilight was sure that coco had quit her job with suri, so what was she doing working in her shop? "we open at six AM and we close at nine PM, eat lunch on your own time" suri explained, coco pommel was sewing cloth pieces together into what looked like a skirt, there were about a dozen finished dresses throughout the room, but suri just looked annoyed rather than impressed. "I told you to finish all of those outfits by the time I got back, if you weren't such a lazy mule, they would have been finished" suri insulted, coco looked like she had heard it all before, she replied "well you gave me twenty dress designs to do, and you would only be gone for an hour, and..." "excuses, excuses, now you're lucky I was nice enough to hire this one to help you, or I would have fired you along with Polly ester!" coco lowered her head in shame, Polly ester must have been the mare that just walked out of the store, twilight was getting angry and she had to say something, "how dare you talk to her like that!" twilight snapped, suri snapped into almost a rage fit on twilight, "how dare I, ah, how dare I! just who do you think you are!?" twilight wished ponies would stop asking her that, it was getting old, twilight removed her cloak to reveal her wings and horn. "princess twilight sparkle" she said, suri, unexpectedly, burst out laughing, "hah, you'll need more than fake wings, and a mane style to pass for the princess, me and princess twilight are very good friends, m'kay" she laughed, "oh really?" twilight asked, "now you just shut up! you have a lot of nerve to talk to your boss like that, you two won't be leaving this room until all those outfits are done!" suri stomped out of the work room and locked the door. twilight tugged at the knob with her magic, "locked in again!" she sighed, "twilight, is that really you?" coco pommel asked. twilight smiled and walked over, "well, we should get to work" twilight replied, she took some fabric pieces and began to sew them together.


	17. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16: STARGAZERS

sunset shimmer and prince blueblood were outside in the royal garden, blueblood throwing a stick, and Hercules scurrying off after it to bring back to him. he gave the prince the stick, and he petted his head, sunset smiled "he likes you" blueblood smiled at the hamster, "well I'm sure his howl is worse than his bite" he joked. sunset giggled, Hercules ran ahead of them as they walked together, overhead, princess Luna was watching them from the balcony, she rolled her eyes and walked back inside the palace. her sister was very ill, from an unknown poison, but Luna knew the poison very well, her sister was sleeping at the moment, "who would have thought that a little bit of veldara..." she took some of the purple flower and tossed it into her sister's tea, the flower, velar could be found growing in the royal garden, it was pretty, but one of the most poisonous plants in the land, "... and a drop of my venom..." she took a small vial from her saddle-bag that was resting on a chair near Celestia's bed. she opened the glass bottle a plopped a drop of the glowing green liquid into the tea, "... would be the key to my revenge!" Celestia groaned in her sleep, she was waking. princess Luna took the veldara and the small vial and hid them in her bag. princess Celestia blinked her eyes open weakly, she was nearly dying, but the kingdom had no idea of her sister's sickness. "hello dear sister, I brought you some tea to make you feel better" Luna said innocently, "thank you Luna, I can always count on you" Celestia thanked, "always, dear sister" Luna practically had to choke the words out of her mouth, she had cared about her sisters once, but they had proved they didn't need her. Celestia and Luna were weak fools, they were just handed the kingdom in a night, while she had worked her tail off her whole life, to end up with nothing, but being turned to stone. it wasn't fair and they knew it, but they just sat there and did nothing, while her parents banished her to the human world. the memory made her want to kill Celestia right now! but she had to wait for the right time, she would get her sweet little sister to pronounce her as queen, and everything would be perfect, her sisters and the other princess' would be out of the way, and the kingdom would be hers, all of it will be mine, she thought.

Luna had risen the moon over equestria that night, and there were so many stars in the sky, it was almost as bright as the moon itself. sunset shimmer and blueblood were lying in the grass, looking up at the stars and talking, "okay, what's your favorite?" sunset asked, "my favorite has to be Aquila, the eagle, it makes me think how it would be like to fly, to fly all the way out to freedom, to be who I want, to do what I want, to be free" blueblood said thoughtfully, sunset shimmer knew exactly how he felt, to desire freedom, to want to make your own destiny, he obviously was destined for adventure, his cutie mark was like a compass. unlike him, sunset shimmer wasn't entirely sure what her cutie mark meant, a year ago she thought her cutie mark meant that she was destined to be Celestia's successor, since it was a sun, but now she didn't have a clue what it meant. "so, what's your favorite?" blueblood asked, sunset looked at her favorite constellation in the night sky, "perseus, the hero" she said, "may I ask why?" blueblood smiled, sunset thought of all the horrible things she had done in the past, but when she thought of the story of perseus, the story of the hero, it made her think she wasn't all bad, "it makes you think that, if a normal guy like perseus can rise up into something good and become a hero, then, maybe somepony who has done bad things in the past, can overcome it and find her, their, light" sunset starred up at the shape of the hero, blueblood turned over on his side to look at her, "and the fact that he fell in love with a beautiful princess and that they lived happily ever after in the stars together makes no difference to you?" he joked, sunset laughed. a silence stretched on, blueblood smiled warmly. a snowflake landed on sunset shimmer's nose, making her sneeze. the snow fell gently around the two ponies, sunset had an idea, "come with me" she said as she rose to her hooves, and helped blueblood up. they galloped to the same pond they had been to the other day, except now it was frozen over with fresh, and skatable ice. sunset shimmer stepped onto the ice, and the prince followed her. sunset took his hoof and he took hers. "you know, you're not at all what I expected" said blueblood. "what did you expect?" she asked. "i don't know, some prissy mare who would see a prince and not a stallion" the prince smiled warmly. sunset blushed. "all my life I've craved adventure, a chance to be brave and... "run free" the two said at the same time.

"I've lived a life filled with beauty and love  
but i crave to be free, and find what I've dreamt of  
but when i see you, i no longer feel blue  
and that i can run free with you"

"i have been places that have never been seen  
a place filled with darkness and i was the queen  
but with you by my side i feel something new  
and that i can run free with you"

"and that i can run free with you" blueblood took sunset's hooves and they spun together on the ice. the stars shimmering above them, and they lost sight of the world around them, all that the two saw,  
was each other.

"when I'm with you, i can feel my own heart  
when by your side, i don't want to part  
no one can split us, we can't stop what we want to start  
and now i know that love can be true  
when i run free with you

i feel warm in this cold winter weather  
i see a life we're meant to live together  
and it's this moment we'll always remember

"we'll always remember..."  
"we will always know"

"when I'm with you, i can feel my own heart  
when by your side, i don't want to part  
no one can split us, we can't stop what we want to start  
and now i know that love can be true...  
when i run free with you

when i run free with you"

the two ponies gazed into one another's eyes. "i have never met a mare like you, honest, brave, no deceptions. I'll see you tomorrow, princess twilight" said blueblood as he walked back to the castle through the snow. outside, sunset shimmer had on a bigger smile than pinkie pie. inside however her heart went cold. the prince felt love when with twilight, not sunset shimmer. Hercules bounded up to her in attempts to cheer her up. "honest, no deceptions, Hercules, twilight is still missing, and i think I'm falling in love with the prince" sunset looked at her reflection in the ice, the prince was falling in love with twilight, that's all he saw. he would never love sunset, not with what she's done in the past. Hercules thought to himself, he thought he sensed something bad about princess Luna, i don't like her, she reminds me of a snake, Hercules thought. he lifted his tiny nose to the air, a scent! and it didn't smell like sunset, or the prince, it smelled like... princess Luna! she was spying on them again, Hercules was going to get to the bottom of this, and see what the princess was up to.

twilight was finishing up a letter to, well, anypony, she needed spike to transport it to canterlot castle. the letter was just a tag from one of suri's dresses, along with one of twilight's wing feathers. spike huffed up a breath and blew his magic green flames onto the note, teleporting it to the castle. "great job spike, when somepony finds the note, it will bring them here" said twilight, "i just hope they get here soon, I've pricked my claw three times already with this needle" spike complained, spike and twilight had been helping coco pommel make the dresses suri had locked them in with. "well, take a break, I'll help you later" twilight replied, "please your highness, you don't have to do this" coco said shyly, "we can't let you do it by yourself, and it's no trouble, I've helped rarity in her shop many times" said twilight, (of course she was never very good with a needle and thread) she used the mechanical sewing machine to attach two fabric pieces together. "there, that makes eight" said twilight as she held up the finished dress with her magic, it wasn't well stitched, there were different colored patches of fabric dotting the outfit, and some of the stitches were sticking out of the seams like a shipwreck! "um, more or less" twilight shied. "that's okay, I'll fix it once I'm finished with this one" said coco, now her dress was beautiful, it was white, with a layer of split, pink satin over it, followed by the same fabric layer, but in baby blue, and that was just the skirt! coco had very delicate and detailed hoof work, it made her perfect for the world of fashion, which reminded twilight, "coco, if you don't mind me asking, why are you working for suri again? i thought you quit" twilight asked. coco sighed and set her needle and thread on the table, "i came back to work for her because my grandfather passed away, and i had trouble finding a job after that costume designing job rarity gave me, and suri was there for me, so i took the job" coco explained. "that's terrible, i promise, if suri continues to treat you this way, then the princess' can take their royal business elsewhere, and you could have a job designing dresses for the royal family!" twilight beamed. "oh, that would be wonderful" coco thanked, "but first, we need to get back to canterlot, before ponies start to panic" twilight acknowledged.

Hercules had followed princess Luna's scent deep into the everfree forest, what was a princess doing in a place like this? thought Hercules. he walked on with his nose to the ground, and his ears in the air, until he heard voices through the trees, he squeezed himself between two bushes to listen without being seen. a rustle sounded beside him, and he was about to utter a small growl, when he saw it was only a white cat, with a rather fancy gem collar. Hercules recognized her as opalescence, rarity's cat, what was a prissy little kitten like opal doing in the everfree forest? "opal, what are you doing out here?" Hercules asked silently, all animals could speak, but only to each other, so ponies and other mythical creatures couldn't understand common animals, unless they learn to speak their language, like the buffalo tribes do. "i could not be in that dreaded shop a minute longer, my rarity has become a menace!" she meowed, "but i thought rarity was your friend?" Hercules replied, "i did too, but she hasn't touched her sewing machine in days, and when i tried to snap her out of it, she through a chair at me! she is not herself darling i can tell you that!" opal hissed. another rustle came from the woods, and opal ducked behind Hercules for protection, when another familiar face popped out of the undergrowth, applejack's dog winona. "winona? let me guess, applejack's acting weird too?" Hercules asked, "you guessed it sugar cube, i can't figer out why my applejack's acting' so... not like herself" winona replied "shhh, someone's coming" Hercules silenced, four ponies came through the trees, one wearing a dark cloak with his hood up. the other three ponies left the three pets with their mouths open, it was rainbow dash, rarity, and applejack, carrying large crates and following the hooded pony! the hooded pony gestured his hoof to make them stop, they carefully set the crate down on the ground. another cloaked figure in a carriage pulled up to the ponies with the crate, the mare stepped out of the carriage and stopped in front of the four ponies. she removed her black cloak, and surprise, it was princess Luna! "sumac, do you have what i need?" she asked the hooded pony, he removed his hood, and underneath it was a horrid creature with slick white fangs, piercing red eyes, and a ratty holed mane. sumac nodded, and he ordered applejack and rainbow dash to open the crate, they obeyed and forced the top of the crate off, making it fall to the ground. princess Luna walked over to see what was inside, but Hercules didn't have a good view of the wooden box, "opal, can you climb that tree to see what's inside that crate?" Hercules asked, opal nodded and clawed her way to a high branch in the tree above their heads. opal saw nothing in the crate but shiny spots here and there, she stepped closer to the edge of her perch to get a better look, inside were, well it wasn't just one thing, there was armor, and swords, and daggers, and chains, and other weapons opal couldn't name. it was slightly terrifying, opal scurried down the tree back down to their hiding place, "what did you see?" Hercules asked, "there was armor and swords and daggers..." "oh my!" winona gasped. "shhhh" Hercules silenced, Luna was saying something important, "these are perfect, and the others?" "on it's way to camp as we speak my queen" sumac replied, princess Luna lifted a double sided sword with her dark green magic, the blades were jagged and threatening (fitting.) "my little sister's kingdom won't know what hit them" Luna sneered. the sword was packed into the crate again, and princess Luna rode away in her carriage, "uuch, she is nasty, just like that bird!" Hercules growled, "we have to do something'!" winona barked, "what can we do, ponies can't understand us!" opal meowed back, Hercules had an idea, but it was very difficult, and twilight was still nowhere to be found, but if Hercules used his nose, he knew he could find her. but sunset shimmer would worry if he just disappeared into the forest, he would go tomorrow.


	18. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17: ALWAYS WATCHING

sunset shimmer was in her room pacing, Hercules was sitting on her side, thinking to himself, "Hercules, i don't know if i can do this, they'll know I'm a fake, they'll throw me in the dungeon in two seconds flat!" she panicked. a knock at the door made her snap out of her pacing, "uh, come in" she called, princess Luna walked in with her expression suspicious and irritated, "princess twilight, your parents and brother are waiting for you in the throne room" she said politely, "my parents? oh yes, my parents" sunset said nervously, Hercules leaped in front of sunset shimmer to defend her from this nasty mare, he growled, princess Luna almost hissed at the hamster, "what's this stupid rat doing here?" she asked, "he belongs to me" sunset snapped back at her. princess Luna had a look in her eyes that made sunset shiver, "oh, my apologies, where's your scaly little friend?" Luna asked, this is where Luna had her cornered, "um, he's around here somewhere" she replied. Luna sensed something in this mare that was not right, she knew this was not the real princess twilight, but she would wait until the right time to expose her. "oh, i see, it's just, you're rarely apart" she sneered, sunset was starting to sweat, when princess Luna said, "well, no matter, you must go to the throne room, off you go, chop chop!" sunset was rushed out of her room, Luna slammed the door in Hercules's face, making him growl some more. sunset trotted to the throne room while princess Luna walked away in the other direction, towards the royal garden.

princess Luna was walking through the palace halls, when a letter appeared in front of her hooves, "what in equestria!" she snapped. her anger sensed when she saw the royal crest on the rolled up paper, she unrolled it to read the note, there was nothing written, there was only a dress tag, and a violet Pegasus feather. princess Luna recognized the feather, it belonged to princess twilight! she picked up the dress tag with her magic," suri polomare's dress shop" she read aloud.

princess luna had taken her carriage to dodge junction, where suri polomare's dress shop was located, and to princess Luna's suspicion, where princess twilight was. she pried at the door, it was locked, inside, twilight was listening to the struggle outside the door, just when she was starting to worry, princess Luna burst into the work room. "princess luna, you found my note!" twilight praised, spike ran to twilight's side, "princess twilight, thank goodness, the kingdom has been looking everywhere for you!" princess luna exclaimed. "come quikly, there's no time to waste" princess luna steared twilight to her carriage, "wait, just let me..." "no time princess" luna interrupted, spike jumped onto twilight's back as they boarded the carriage, princess luna whispered something in the carriage driver's ear, he nodded and took off running into the wilderness. coco pommel came into the work room with more fabrics, "princess twilight?" she called, but the princess and her dragon friend were both gone.

princess luna's carriage had pulled up in front of an old mine entrance in the everfree forest, "princess luna, what are we doing here?" twilight asked, "just royal buisnesssss" luna hissed, then it all came together, "you were behind this!" twilight accused, "i'm surprised you couldn't see it earlier, check mate, i win" luna sneered. luna dragged twilight into a cavern in the mine, where a familiar face was waiting. flash?" "princess?" he was surprised to see her here, "now to deal with your sister, and her friends" hissed luna, "don't you dare hurt cadence!" twilight cried, "not to be rude princess, but i wasn't talking to you" this took both of the ponies by surprise, twilight didn't know flash had a sister, and he knew he didn't, "i don't have a sister" he said finally, "oh, you really don't know, do you, well no matter, i don't care, soon i will take my rightfull place as this kingdom's queen, and my sisters' bloodline will be silenced forever, just as they will be" luna grinned evily. "princess cadence and shinning armor will never stop looking for me" twilight snapped, "oh, i think they will, when i show them this" said luna as she held up twilight's wing feather from her note. "face it twilight, i've won, and now i have your precious magic, and you have nothing" she hissed. that was when twilight finally understood, "it was you all along wasn't it! sunset shimmer was never that awful, it was you controlling her, you put those ideas in her head, that's how she knew about my crown, that's how she knew when to steal it, you needed her dark magic to try to take equestria!" twilight accused, "oh, bravo princess twilight, you figured it out, though, you are wrong about one thing, i am not who you think" luna explained, "then... who are you?" asked flash, princess luna's mane then morphed from her beautiful starry mane, to six pairs of red, glowing eyes, her tail did the same, and transformed her mane and tail, into twelve living breathing snakes! six for her mane, six for her tail. twilight looked in horror as the once peacful and elegant princess luna, turned into a terrible creature of dark magic. her eyes shifted from soothing turquoise, to piercing red daggers, the eyes of a snake.


	19. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18: REVALATIONS

Prince blueblood and his parents were in the throne room with princess cadence and shinning armor, along with sunset shimmer and Hercules. "Are you ready twilight?" princess cadence asked, "ready" she said with low enthusiasm, she really liked blueblood, but he didn't know who she really was. "for my bride to be" he said happily, he held out a ring box in his hoof, he opened it up, and inside was a beautiful, silver horn ring, with a diamond so shimmery it looked like a star. it made her smile, "wow" was all she could say, "now, we have been discussing a date for the wedding, and we have decided on three months from today" said queen briar rose, princess cadence was about to reply, when princess Luna burst into the room with two royal guards. "Arrest her, she is an imposter!" Luna accused, the guards took sunset's arms and dragged her to the door, "hey, let go of me!" she struggled, "Princess Luna, what do you think you're doing!?" cadence snapped, "she is a phony your highness', I have proof" Luna replied, "are you telling me I don't know my own little sister!?" shinning armor objected. "I did not believe it at first either, but I have seen it myself, this was her plan all along, to pony-nap princess twilight and take her place as princess, marry prince blueblood, and take over equestria" princess Luna explained, prince blueblood was the only one not listening, he knew that the twilight he knew would never hurt anypony, "and what proof, do you have princess Luna?" he asked, "I investigated for days, on where she was hiding the princess, she took her and hid her in the abandoned mines, and I tried to get to her in time, but it was too late, the shaft collapsed, and this is all that I have found in the ruins" princess Luna held up a violet Pegasus feather, it was twilight's. "no, it can't be!" cadence cried, Philomena swooped in out of nowhere and tore sunset's costume wings from her back, tearing them to shreds and plopping them onto the floor. "Guards, take her away" the guards dragged sunset shimmer away, but she ripped herself free, "wait... I'm not twilight, but I swear I would never hurt her or anypony else..." "The dungeon!" Luna ordered, "I just wanted to save twilight, from her!" sunset said as the guards dragged her from the room, cadence and shinning armor were not listening to her, they were in grief for twilight, cadence was crying, and shinning armor was trying to comfort her. "I can't believe it" blueblood sighed, "I am sorry my son" briar rose said to her son, "I know you were fond of that mare" she continued. And he really was, he might just say he'd fallen in love with her.

The guards had locked sunset shimmer in magic-proof chains, and made a reversal spell for the changeling potion, so she now had her orange coat, and fiery mane again. but her fiery spirit, had been put out, she had never felt so hopeless, the guard had her on a lead line chain, and was leading her to a prison transportation cart, she hesitated at first, but the guard gave her a look that said, it's okay, everything will be okay, so she stepped into the cart. he chained her chains to the side of the cart, and told the driver to take her to... she wasn't listening, and she didn't care, her friend who had tried so hard to help her was dead, and it was all her fault, she had been broken. Storm clouds filled the sky, a snow storm, she thought, the snow started to fall, and sunset shimmer just watched it blow into the cart and make her shiver, but she didn't care, all she could think of, was that she had lost everything. she hadn't realized that she had been crying until a tear fell to the floorboards, she looked hopefully into the storm, hoping, praying, that somehow everything would be alright, but she knew that wherever she went, she would be a monster, "what have I done?" she asked herself. she stared blankly out into the storm, not thinking, not waiting, nothing, she must have started to see things, because sunset swore she could see a figure forming in the falling snow, but that was impossible! She ignored it and continued to stare, until the figure looked like a pony, running in the storm, the wind swirled and twisted itself into the cart, and sunset shimmer was on edge, she almost lunged at it, but then she stopped, the snow and wind morphed into a full formed pony! it was a Pegasus mare, with a snow-white coat, and sparkling blue eyes, her wings were beautiful, they shimmered when she flew, her mane was colored with pink, blue, and white, and her body was covered with purple markings, making her look like a princess. she seemed, awful familiar "all will be well my child, be not afraid" she said, her voice was like the sweetest honey, "what do you mean?" sunset asked, "I am star catcher, be not afraid of your destination, or of me, I have always been with you, you must be brave, and rescue your friends" said star catcher, sunset shimmer was still confused, when star catcher's eyes glowed into bright blue orbs, and sunset shimmer was transported to a starry, nowhere!

"Where am I!" sunset shimmer shouted into the empty air. An odd shape formed in the distance, sunset thought they looked like a pony, but she couldn't be sure, when the shadow pony came closer, sunset relaxed, it was just star catcher. "Star catcher, where am I, where did you take me, am I dead or something!" sunset questioned, "Be not afraid..." "why do you keep saying that?" sunset interrupted, star catcher ignored her interruption and continued, "for you are asleep, and to defeat your enemies in the present, you must first know the past" star catcher's eyes glowed again, and the two were transported to what seemed like canterlot castle, but this was different, star catcher looked out on the land of equestria in sorrow, "long ago, a mythic battle between good and evil, took place in ancient equestria" star catcher explained, sunset shimmer was confused, if there was a battle in equestria, ever, there would be some kind of history written up on it. Star catcher continued, "The rulers of our fair kingdom had children to one day rule the land, with joy, hope, and strength. they were three daughters born to our king and queen, the first born was Medusa, her quick thinking and gifted mind would lead the kingdom's armies into victory and respect throughout the land, five years later, Celestia was born, her kind heart and gentle mind would shine into the heavens, reflecting back onto the kingdom to bring joy and harmony to all, the last to come was Luna, she was born on the night of the full moon, as a sign that she would be the moon in the night, to shine on the ones consumed in darkness, to bring hope to those who have lost their way. the kingdom was overjoyed, princess medusa would one day rule the kingdom alongside her younger sisters, medusa would rule the forests and fields of the kingdom, bringing the seasons of the year, celestia would raise the sun each and every day, and Luna would bring the moon to bring light to the night, thus the three sisters were happy and harmonic to each other and their kingdom. but as years passed, medusa began to realize, that ponies all over praised and loved the day and night her sisters brought, but did nothing to celebrate her seasons of the year, consumed by her jealousy, she confronted her sisters, she demanded that they step down and that she rule the kingdom on her own, her sisters refused and said that they should rule together as a symbol of harmony, medusa was furious, she stormed out of the kingdom, and vowed to get the throne for herself. The king and queen worried for their child, that there was something forming inside her far beyond their control. For many years all was well in the kingdom, but far away, medusa had plans for her sisters' kingdom, she forged a powerful spell, and unleashed her wrath upon the changeling kingdom, for millennia the changelings had been peaceful ponies, beautiful creatures with the power to change. But with medusa's spell now upon them, they were transformed into horrid, disgusting creatures of darkness, medusa raised an army of vengeful hate filled changelings, and returned to equestria, to conquer them all. the king and queen knew there was only one way to defeat their wicked daughter, the elements of harmony, there were seven elements of the ancient kingdom, but the king and his queen didn't have the heart to use them all on their own child, they knew it would kill her for sure, so one was hidden away, to be looked after and cared for by a guardian to protect it from all those who lived for its destruction. Medusa came back for the castle, and the king and queen retrieved the elements, before medusa destroyed everything. the rulers unleashed the elements on medusa, turning her to stone, and banishing her to another world, to sit in silence for all eternity, but a prophecy came, that on the thousandth year of her banishment, medusa will rise again to enslave all of ponykind, on that dark day, there will be nothing and no one to save us..."

Sunset shimmer's eyes flew open, she gasped and coughed for air, she felt her head, it was damp with sweat. she stood up and whipped the sweat from her forehead, then a light breeze of snow blew into her face, cooling her nose and making her shiver a little bit, but on the wind, she could hear a distant whinny, she looked outside, star catcher was there, she smiled her warm smile at sunset shimmer, then vanished into the snow and wind. Sunset was amazed, celestia and Luna had an older sister, and she was... evil! Wait, if medusa was turned to stone, and sent to another world... oh no, sunset thought, the statue of the horse at canterlot high school! At the winter's ball it exploded and then she and flash just showed up in equestria! Medusa was inside the statue, and now she was free, and sunset had a pretty good idea on where she was, star catcher was right, she had to save her friends before medusa destroyed everything.


	20. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19: AN EVERFREE PRISON

The cart had been moving for hours, until they reached a part of the forest that no one had ever been to before, the driver opened the door, letting light into the dark cart. sunset shimmer blinked back the light from her eyes, "it's time to go" said a guard, he took the chain lead line and attached it to the magic proof chains. When sunset shimmer stepped out of the cart, her eyes widened at what awaited her outside. They were in the abandoned mines in the everfree forest, but they weren't so abandoned anymore. there were ponies all through the tunnels, pulling carts filled with blue gems, sunset thought they were diamonds, but these were different, and the ponies mining and pulling them around looked miserable, it was like the crystal empire during the rule of king sombra. There were diamond dogs scattered throughout the mines, carrying whips and wearing armor, keeping the working ponies in check as they harvested the blue gems. There was even a roaring river of water, slashing through the tunnels, this was like prison, but worse, sunset wasn't here to pay for impersonating a princess, and she was here for something a lot more important. The guard leading her tied her to a post near an underground mountain, on the top was a changeling stallion with a jagged, pointed horn, and a snake coiled around his waist. Sunset shimmer didn't know why she and all the other ponies were here, what she did know, is that she had to escape, and get back home.

"take her to the stables..." said a diamond dog, sunset had tied her fiery mane into a tight braid, and was being taken to the stables for, something, "wait!" said a deep and familiar voice, "general sumac, we were just taking this one to the stables..." said the dog, "she's from ponyville general" said another, sumac held sunset's chin up with his hoof, "humph, we just received three others from ponyville, this one will be no different" he smirked, sunset knew him, he was the one who cursed her when she was a filly! Before she could stop herself, she bit down hard on his hoof until she tasted blood in her mouth. Sumac shouted in pain, and she released her jaw, and sumac yanked himself from her bite. a good distance away, rainbow dash and rarity were hauling harmony gems (gives changelings power without harvesting love from other ponies) when rarity heard the commotion, she ignored it, but a diamond dog yanked her head up and dragged her and rainbow dash to a post outside the training ring, they were tied up next to applejack. Sunset shimmer was still looking at sumac and didn't even notice her friends, "Otis, take that mare to the stables, now" snapped a dog, "no!" sumac hissed, "Sir?" Otis asked, "Not the stables, the training ring, that mare needs to be broken" he snarled.

The diamond dogs had dragged sunset into the corral, they dressed her in shabby and rusty armor, and put weapons in the center of the ring. Outside the fence, rainbow dash, applejack, and rarity were watching. "I feel awful for the poor darling who goes in there" rarity cried, "Better them than us" rainbow dash muttered under her breath. sunset shimmer's armor helmet was impossible to see out of, the rust was scratching her skin, and jagged shards of metal scraped her face, she figured that they made the armor this way so whoever came into the corral to fight, lost on purpose. "Who's up first!?" a changeling called, a diamond dog dressed in gem incrusted armor leapt into the corral, and grabbed a club off the ground. Sunset shimmer smashed herself against the ground, shattering the rusty armor, "mare, do you chose to die slower if no armor is upon you!?" called a diamond dog, "that armor sucks! I will kick your buts without it!" sunset snapped, rainbow dash and applejack saw sunset shimmer in the ring while rarity was drinking from a bucket of water at the foot of the post, applejack neighed encouragingly, and rainbow nodded with excitement to see how sunset will beat up these jerks. sunset shimmer trotted to the center of the ring, and picked up some sort of coil whip, a changeling flew to the fence and held up a flag, he raised it up, sunset blew air from her nose, and stomped on the ground, the dog swung his club up onto his shoulder, the flag fell to the ground, and the dog didn't throw the club at her, try to hurt her or anything, he was on her back with a bit in her mouth, this made her angrier. she bucked like a mustang, galloping all over the ring, the diamond dog was flopping around like a rag doll on her back, she skidded to a halt, and swung her head back, hitting the dog in the face, she ran faster in tight circles, dizzying the dog. When sunset felt his foot fall out of the stirrup, she bucked as high as she could, knocking him on the ground. The next round was harder that the last, sunset had to start off in a stall, where two dogs held her mouth open, and another put in a metal bit, it tasted horrible and hurt her mouth, an armored dog climbed onto her back. "ready..." the dog carefully, released the lock on the stall, and as soon as he did, sunset shimmer burst out and bucked wildly until he fell out of the saddle, he hit the ground with a thud, making sunset smirk, "I'll be eaten' horse meat tonight!" the dog called in sunset's direction, she turned to him with evil in her eyes and chased him over the fence. "Now that's what I call buckin'!" applejack whinnied, she, rarity, and rainbow dash neighed in triumph in sunset's direction, sumac shot them an evil glare and they stopped. Sunset trotted to her end of the ring, there was a changeling growling at her, but she bit in his direction, knocking him off his hooves. She relaxed a bit, and a changeling came into the corral with a dagger, but sunset grabbed a metal whip in the center of the ring, she swung it at him, it coiled around his torso, making him turn to ash. Other changelings and diamond dogs tried to beat her and failed, one she grabbed by the leg, swung him into the air, and kicked him in the gut while he was falling. Distant rattling of chains, and pain filled grunts disrupted sunset's thinking, she looked over the fence to see a stallion about her age, with her orange coat, and a blue spiky mane... oh man! It was flash, of course it was him! There was no end to me getting stuck with this guy! Sunset thought, guards were dragging him to a steak, not to be burned, but to be beaten, something inside of sunset clicked into place as a guard punched him in the gut, and before she knew it, she jumped the fence and was hit in the face by a knife that was swung in flash's direction, cutting her left cheek. Sunset shimmer stood in front of him like a shield, the guard held a sword in front of her neck, ready to slice her up like thanksgiving turkey! but she didn't move an inch, "go ahead" she challenged, silence fell upon the tunnels, until the only sound was sunset's breathing, her heart beating out of her chest, and... Clapping? It was general sumac, why was he clapping? Was this funny to him? Sunset would never not feel anger around this stallion. "How sweet, a brave sister, protecting her young brother, it's so sweet it makes me sssssick" sumac hissed, now it was sunset and flash's turn to be silent. What in equestria was sumac talking about! Sunset didn't have a brother, she had her older sister melody breeze, but that was it. Sunset and flash exchanged glances, she just stared at him, and he just shrugged. "Oh, they don't even know" sumac said with false sympathy, "take them to the queen!" he shouted, guards snatched the two up and dragged them to the mountain.

At the top of the dirt mountain stood an ancient throne, designed to look like twelve snakes intertwining with the roof of the cavern, there was even a skylight! Sitting on the throne was a shadowy figure that sunset shimmer couldn't see the face of, but she already knew that she hated her. "I brought you the mare you asked for my queen" said sumac as he bowed to the shadow pony, she lifted her head to glance at sunset shimmer, and a grin showed in the low light, "you must have really let your guard down sunset, for you to end up here with your..." she glanced at flash and continued, "... forgotten brother" "I don't have a brother" sunset snapped, "I'd hold your tongue if I were you sweetheart" the guard hissed in her ear. the pony stepped off of her snake throne for them to get a better look at her, flash's eyes widened, and sunset shimmer growled under her breath, it was princess Luna, though her eyes had changed from a soothing and comforting turquoise, to a sharp and piercing red, with vertical pupils that looked like knives waiting for you to look into them and have your heart cut out. "I know who you are, and I'm not scared of you" sunset shimmer growled, "oh, and who am I?" Luna asked, "you're princess medusa, sister of celestia and Luna, you wanted the throne to yourself, and you were banished and sealed into the statue of a horse outside of canterlot high" she explained, "and you're not afraid of me?" medusa asked with a grin, "no, just disgusted" sunset replied, "hmm, so, you don't know who your brother is? well allow me to tell you a story" medusa changed the subject, she shot a spell behind them, lighting torches throughout the tunnels, startling some ponies, but then continuing their work. "Once upon a time, near a crummy little village, there lived a young blacksmith who fell in love with the princess of cloudsdale" sunset shimmer's father, bronze blade, was a blacksmith, he fell in love with a princess? Then she remembered, star catcher! She was pretty enough to be a princess, and she was so familiar, star catcher was sunset's mother! "princess star catcher, your mule of a mother, she was so in love with him, she gave up her princesship to be with him, and with their three beautiful children, they were so happy, but not for long" medusa told them, her horn glowed a sickly green, and sunset and flash were teleported to, what looked like a memory, but not one that sunset, well, remembered. she could see a young stallion, her father, forging an axe of some sort, and a Pegasus mare looking after three foals, one sunset recognized, with her white coat, and blue and black frizzy, punk style mane, it was her sister melody breeze. Sunset shimmer did remember this, it was before she was cursed, but what was strange, was that she didn't remember star catcher or flash ever being there. "this was about the time when my followers started to gather" medusa explained, sunset leaped from her resting spot and went straight for the princess' neck, but guards held her down and chained her to a metal post, leaving flash on the ground, "now watch as you relive the worst time of your life" medusa hissed, she held sunset's head up as she watched the day she was cursed, flash was watching more interested, like he did remember, but not in the same way that she did. the glass vial smashed against the ground, filly sunset fell to the ground, the lock of her mane turned black, "from that day on, no matter how hard you would try, my magic could never be broken, and when you came to the world I was in, you might as well have asked me to control your thoughts!" she snarled, sunset's eyes widened in horror, "that's right sunny, I was in your head all along, ever wonder how you even knew who princess twilight was!? How you knew she would be in the crystal empire? The right time to steal that royal trinket of hers? And how to use it!?" sunset shimmer felt tears claw at her eyes, but she held them back, she wouldn't let herself be broken again. "well, did you miss me?" it was a rhetorical question, "well, back to our story, months passed before my little sister took you as her student, and in that time, your powers grew stronger, and you were growing darker, but there was one thing holding your darkness back... you" she hissed as she looked flash in the eye, "I knew that if I wanted you to trust me and let me into your thoughts, I would have to get rid of him, so let's see how it worked out" the three were transported to the house in canterlot where sunset grew up, well, sort of grew up, it was dark and stormy, but sunset and flash could see themselves through the house window, they shared a room, and most of sunset's side of the room was turned to that black, starry stone. Their foal selves were asleep, but they could still hear the conversation their parents were having. "we must take her to the princess, her powers are getting stronger" bronze blade said, "we'll take them both, melody is old enough to know how to live with her sister's power, but she is closer to her brother, it would be putting them both in danger" star catcher argued, their quiet argument was interrupted by a knock at the door, bronze blade opened it quiet enough not to wake the foals, "princess celestia, your highness" he said as the princess entered the canterlot home, "I am sorry for you to come so late" star catcher apologized, "I understand your concern star catcher, for I am fearful that this was all my fault, I can supply a solution" celestia walked into the young ponies' bedroom, she tapped both of their foreheads lightly with her horn, creating two bright orbs of light above their heads, "you can separate them, for their own safety, and I can help them to forget each other..." celestia went through various memories in their young minds, changing some and erasing others, sunset couldn't see entirely, but she saw some of the memories changed, she saw her and flash as foals, her on the ground watching him in the air as he flew for the first time, celestia changed the image to look like her sister was the one flying, one of flash's memories of him playing with melody to him playing with some mare the same age who could have been his foal sitter or something. all of their memories of each other, erased or changed, medusa broke the silence "and of course, a few years later, I sent out a bit of a message to my followers in cloudsdale, that their princess must be eliminated, so, she went into the forest to hide, but she would never return, to be buried alive by my army..." her voice trailed off, "the end, it's beautiful isn't it, she died, to save you both, and all this time, it didn't even matter" sunset felt anger and hate rise in her soul, but she remembered how medusa was an enemy, she showed no fear to the evil princess, gave her no satisfaction. Sunset struggled against the chains but it was useless, medusa grinned evilly at her, and looked around at the horrific mines, filled with ponies trying to keep themselves alive. She smiled at it all with pride. "my father always told me of visions he had of me sitting on the throne, telling me that I would be queen one day... but they took it away from me!" she hissed.

"Canterlot...! Let's go back to war and violence  
I'm so bored with peace and..."

Sunset kicked the cold bars she was tied to, creating a loud clang,

"SILENCE!  
Nights of evil, filled with fear  
Your worst dream, that's my idea of fun!"

She bit down hard on the chains, but they were enchanted with a spell beyond even her dark magic.

"Let darkness find its sad ways  
Let's go back to good old bad days  
No more foolish acts of kindness  
My sisters and their kingdom will be mine!"

a soldier slashed the cold chains and sunset fell to the ground, two snake changelings held her by her magic-proof shackles, medusa lifted her chin with her dark blue hoof, "I have many plans for you my dear, and you will help me" medusa growled "I would rather die!" sunset snapped. medusa smirked, "I think you'll find that resistance is worthless to you!" more soldiers dragged flash sentry from the dirt and held a dagger to his neck, sunset gasped in horror, it was only hours ago that sumac told the two friends that they were siblings, and now that medusa said that their mother was dead, it formed a deep hatred in sunset's heart "don't you DARE hurt him!" sunset cried, "oh, I would never" medusa said with false concern, she hissed her ugly forked tongue at sunset, and turned to the weak ponies below her,

"Years from now, no one will bother  
To recall your kingdom's mother  
Because all of this will be mine!  
This will all be mine!"

She laughed devilishly into the echoic tunnels

"I have a plan; it involves you  
You, sunset shimmer, will lead us to canterlot  
Where I will claim all this is mine  
In the depths of these tunnels, my soldiers will hide  
You cannot stop me, they've already tried  
Now watch me control my monstrous army with pride"

Hundreds of thousands of snake changeling soldiers marched from the shadows of the mines, their eyes, sharp and evil as a snake.

"Imagine my title when I appear,  
Worshipped, hated, loved, and feared!  
I'd just like to say a few words:  
I, me, mine!  
You were mistaken if you believed  
That I was someone who'd crumble and leave  
Now I am back, and you won't be saved this time!"

"You will never be queen medusa, celestia and Luna will stop you!" flash snapped.

"I told you once  
I told you twice!  
Everything you see before you  
Every last piece  
Will...  
Be...  
Mine!"

"Now, I will give you one last chance to join me, what do you say sunny?" medusa said calmly. "Never!" sunset growled, the evil princess grimaced at the fiery mare, "put those two to work, now!" medusa hissed at the soldiers holding them. They took hold of her shackles and pulled her away from the brother she never even knew she had, she didn't notice before, but his wing was twisted and obviously hurting, he must have hurt it when the guards attacked him. This was worse than the dungeon, much worse, and they had to get themselves, and everypony else, out!


	21. Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20: MEANWHILE

"I can't believe sunset shimmer was arrested" fluttershy frowned, "serves that gal' right" rarity said with her head held high, it seemed that only fluttershy and pinkie pie were sad about sunset shimmer, not just twilight's death. "well, I have never met such a ghastly, ill-mannered pony like her" applejack said fancily, rainbow dash said nothing, she was acting more shy than fluttershy, which was all very strange, considering her bombastic personality, come to think of it, fluttershy thought, applejack and rarity weren't acting like themselves either, rarity was even wearing a cowpony hat! And it wasn't beaded, or gem incrusted, or sequined, or anything, it was just a plain, pale purple, cowpony hat. Fluttershy just figured her applejack and rainbow dash were just acting strange from their grief and sorrow. And now that Princess Luna had announced that princess celestia was gravely sick, the whole kingdom was frantic or just plain sad, even pinkie pies normally puffed up and happy mane had deflated to her flat pink mane. "It doesn't make sense, why would sunset shimmer do this to twilight, when twilight did all of that stuff to help her?" fluttershy asked, "maybe because she never needed our help, and it was all a trick so she could get the throne to herself" applejack snapped. fluttershy had a gift for seeing the good in everypony, and she knew that there was good in sunset shimmer, she just had a problem for shutting everypony out, and she knew she didn't deserve to be in prison, "but what if there was another side to the story?" fluttershy asked, "what do you mean sugar pie?" rarity replied, "what if sunset shimmer was possessed by an evil queen monster, who wanted the throne from princess celestia and Luna, and she was trapped in sunset shimmer's other world and needed a way to get back here so she controlled sunset's thoughts and actions leading her to steal twilight's crown but once she was free she took the form of somepony really important, framing sunset shimmer for twilight's death and getting her arrested because this evil queen needs her out of the way for some great and powerful purpose that could change equestria, and if sunset shimmer discovers this power, the queen will be defeated, and NEVER ABLE TO ESCAPE AGAIN!" pinkie pie rambled. Rainbow dash, applejack, and rarity's eyes widened, pinkie pie guessed that much! It was very accurate though, applejack thought. but they didn't know that, "what are we going to do?" fluttershy asked "without twilight, I don't even want to think about what would happen, twilight is the one who brought us together and made us best friends, without her, are we even best friends?" "fluttershy darling, of course we are, we just need some time to move on, and with princess celestia sick, I doubt that she will pull through, we will need a new princess, maybe even a queen?" applejack suggested, fluttershy raised her eyebrow in suspicion, it was not like applejack to lose faith so easily, and since when did applejack call her darling? "anyway, I was thinking of making best friend rock candy necklaces, like we did when my sister Maud was here, and take them to twilight's memorial stone" pinkie pie said to brake the awkward silence. "That would be fine sugar pie, we'll get started right away on them necklaces" rarity agreed, rainbow dash nodded in agreement, she blinked her lavender eyes blankly, rainbow dash was never this silent, ever! And she didn't have lavender eyes, fluttershy thought, rainbow dash's eyes were a warm pink! This was getting weirder and weirder!

Twilight pried at the stones on the walls of the cavern, princess Luna had caused the mines to collapse, hoping it would kill the two ponies inside, but surprisingly, the cavern held its place. she and flash had been trapped in the cave for hours, digging and clipping away stone, but it didn't seem like they were any closer to getting out, pieces of stone chipped off the walls scattered on the floor, one particular heavy and ashy stone landed on spike's tail, "ouch!" he yelped, "oh, sorry spike" twilight apologized as spike tended his sore tail, twilight kicked the heavy stone to the side, when something caught her eye. She lifted the stone with her magenta magic, something underneath the ash and soot was... shimmering! Twilight brushed away the soot and dirt from the stone, it wasn't a stone, it was a shimmering, blue gem! and one that was extremely familiar, it took her a few minutes to figure out where she'd seen it before, then it hit her, sunset shimmer's necklace! It had the same blue gem in the pendant, twilight had read about these types of gems in her books before, it was a harmony gem. The rare blue stone could bring great joy and harmony to whomever possessed them, they would be made into jewelry in ancient equestria, and could bring harmony to one's heart, wait... "that's it!" she exclaimed aloud, "what?" flash asked, "sunset shimmer's amulet, it protects her from dark magic in her heart, put there when she was little, and she wears a pendant with a harmony gem to keep harmony in her heart, that's why she was never entirely evil, because she had a harmony gem around her neck this whole time!" she explained. "oh, so how do we get rid of the dark magic forever?' spike asked, "I don't know anymore, we would need a miracle, the blood moon is in only three days, and if we miss it, then i have no other ideas, she'll be dark forever" twilight sighed, clearly disappointed in herself, flash stopped kicking the stone wall for a moment and went to sit next to twilight. "since when do you, princess twilight, the element of magic, and possibly the greatest friend anyone could ever have, give up?" he asked, this made her smile, "do you know why I didn't want to marry prince blueblood?" twilight asked, changing the subject, "you weren't ready to get married?" he replied, it was part of the reason, but not the reason twilight was thinking of, "well, yes but, it was mostly because I don't love him, and that I like somepony else" she said while blushing. "he's my friend, and I know that you and I haven't been through that much, but it feels like we've been through a lot together" twilight was thinking of the flash that sunset shimmer arrived with, she had been through a lot with him, "but I'm not a prince, I can't give you what blueblood can" flash objected, "I think that you're like this" twilight said as she held up the harmony gem with her hoof, "a blue rock?" he replied questionably, "only on the outside, but something magical within." she smiled warmly, "I'm not in love, but I would like to fall in love in my own time, in my own way, and when I feel it's right" twilight explained, "I know how you feel, I wouldn't want to be thrown into marriage at sixteen either" flash replied. "We'll get out of here, I promise" he vowed, twilight gave him a loving hug, then they went back to kicking and chipping apart the walls of the cavern.


	22. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21: THE GREAT ESCAPE

The magic proof shackles were heavy around sunset shimmer's ankles, they were designed to hold any magical parts down so they couldn't be used, even her horn was locked in an iron helm, and iron makes even the most powerful magic fizzle. The guards had hooked her up to a chain rope that ran about a mile until it stopped, and was attached to an enormous iron stone, tens of other ponies were chained to the rope as well, the boulder must be so heavy, they need so many ponies to move it out of the way. Chained up next to her was a mare about her age named flitter, the ribbon tied in her mane was faded and torn up, she must have been here for weeks, sunset shimmer thought. after a few more ponies were chained to the line, a couple diamond dogs secured the chain around the giant boulder, when they were finished, one of them called out, "ready to go!" and another, standing in the crowd of chained ponies, swung his whip, startling the ponies around him, making them start walking. Sunset shimmer, pulled herself forward with each weighed step, hauling the boulder along with everypony else. sweat pooled down her face, but she wasn't paying attention, a young colt across from her named lucky clover was stumbling a lot, and sunset noticed his back hoof was a bit crooked, and the guard noticed because the mangy dog swung his whip and grazed lucky's front hoof, that's it, sunset thought, she leapt at the guard, nearly biting his paw off so he would drop the whip, he jumped out of the way in surprise, she glared at him, and he backed off. she looked back and then helped lucky on to his hooves, she glanced at who was chained next to him, a mare named lyra, "stick with him" sunset ordered, "he needs help, especially around here, stay by him" lyra nodded and let lucky lean on her while she hauled with the group. Sunset glanced back at the huge boulder, they had hauled it enough out of the way so sunset shimmer could see what was beyond it, and it's... just another tunnel? Sunset peered into the dark tunnel, and saw a violet-pink, crystal substance growing throughout the passageway, she knew she had seen those crystals before, they only grew deep below canterlot and... Sunset shimmer gasped. That was when she finally understood, they were going to attack canterlot from the inside! And she had to stop them. She dug her hooves into the dirt and slid to a halt, and holding up the group of hauling ponies, diamond dogs rushed down and started whipping them all to get them going again. She started babbling like a lunatic, telling everypony to stop and that they were all in great danger, diamond dogs surrounded her and tried to get her to cease resistance, she only saw one way out of this, she closed her eyes and fell to the ground with a dead thud. "hold up!" a guard shouted, silence fell upon the tunnel, "get the wagon for this one!" a dog called as another one, sunset remembered was named Otis, checked to see if she was really dead. She peeped one eye open the slightest bit to see if it was working, two dogs lifted her limp body into a wooden cart, and two other ponies pulled it out of the work tunnel. Rainbow dash, applejack, and rarity had heard the commotion, somepony had stopped the group from hauling. Applejack peered into the wagon cart, and took off her cowpony hat in respect for the poor mare, "get back to work!" a guard called, everypony started to haul the boulder again. Sunset felt that her back hooves were chained to the wagon so her body wouldn't fall out, she didn't think any guards were watching so she took in a large breath, to which rainbow dash had seen, and her mouth hung open in surprise. sunset shimmer's eyes flew open, and she kicked the chains off her hooves, applejack and a bunch of other ponies saw this and cheered in triumph, sunset leapt out of the cart, and practically flew towards the tunnel exit, a changeling solider ordered the diamond dogs after her, they mounted up on saddled ponies and raced to catch up with the speeding mare, sunset shimmer wasn't too far ahead of them, she kept yelling back, "over here, come and get me!" she was the distraction so that flitter could tell evrypony to fight back, and get the guards away from the boulder for sunset's plan. she raced through the tunnels and came to a block in the path, a tree trunk was dead in front of her, she could hear the diamond dogs gaining on her, she ducked underneath the dead thing, the diamond dogs jumped the fallen log and deeper into the tunnels, but sunset was hiding and leapt over the log and ran in the other direction, back to the boulder. She saw a dog riding a pony, probably going to go help with the commotion, sunset shimmer jumped into the air and kicked him right off the pony, he hit the ground with a thud, and the pony neighed in thanks. Sunset ran ahead of him, not before throwing herself against the hard rock wall, smashing the magic proof chains, and them scattering in a pile behind her as she ran. sunset galloped as fast as she could, keeping a steady stride so she wouldn't tire quickly, changeling solders chased her through the dark passageways, her already miles ahead, racing and galloping back to the boulder, she could almost feel their sharp white fangs biting into her, their venom slowly killing her, she ignored the thought and kept running. while galloping she could hear the soldiers firing magic at her, one beam of dark magic hit, and smashed a lantern on the cave wall, creating a roaring fire that was spreading through the caves, sunset shimmer reached the boulder chain, all over ponies were trying to break free from their shackles, she skidded to a halt at the base of the rock, it had stopped moving forward, but wouldn't stop for good if not pushed back into place, sunset heard the solders galloping closer, "we got her now" one smirked, "yah you bet 'ya" said the other. A rattle of a chain broke sunset shimmer's fear, she gazed at the chain rope behind her, and an idea sprouted like an apple seedling, as applejack would say, who was still chained up with rainbow dash and rarity. Sunset gathered her strength, and kicked the chain, her hooves stung from the cold metal, but she kicked it again, her hooves already sore, but with one last powerful kick, the chain snapped, the magic proof shackles shattered in an array of metal, and the ponies were free. they ran into the dark tunnels, flitter hovering near the roof, now that she could fly again, sunset caught eye of rainbow dash, rarity, and applejack waiting for her to join them in escape, "I need to find flash, go, they need somepony to lead them out!" she called, they nodded in unison, and rainbow dash sped through the air to the front of the galloping ponies, while rarity and applejack stayed at their sides. sunset shimmer took off in the opposite direction, galloping to the dirt mountain, there were diamond dogs and changeling solders trying to gather what they could, she searched the commotion for her brother, then she spotted him near the roaring river, struggling to pry himself free from a diamond dog, he reared up and the dog stumbled, but sumac glanced at him with a lust for blood in his eye, sunset sprinted towards them but when she was even close to stopping sumac, his horn glowed black, and a beam of magic shot towards sunset's brother, hitting him hard in the shoulder, sunset gazed in horror as her only brother fell into the underground river. Sunset shimmer found she sprinting towards sumac, an evil grin planted on his face, she slid into him, knocking him to the ground, she got her bearings and galloped along the riverbed, keeping up with flash as he was tossed through the rapids, he was being whipped through the freezing water like a plastic toy boat through a waterfall. she saw that he wasn't getting out of there on his own, his shoulder was hurt bad by sumac's magic, sunset shimmer's heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she saw what was in front of her, a ledge that hung over the rapid water, sunset sprinted ahead, her hooves thundering against the gravel. she winded up and jumped clear into the icy water, the cold hitting her like a thousand knives all over her body, she could feel her muscles start to freeze up, and the frost forming in her mane, but she fought hard against it, kicking and paddling forward to reach her drowning friend. His head submerged the freezing river, but sunset dove into the ice, her legs stinging from running so much, she resurfaced with flash on her back, his shoulder limp, and his wing broken, but he was still alive. sunset shimmer dug her hooves into the wet ground, trying to pull back against the current, but it was too strong, after at least a minute, the ground disappeared beneath them, the current spurring ice cold water into sunset's face, she spat and coughed it back, trying to see a way out of the water, a close roar of water caught her attention, she turned to see a waterfall, raining down like a monsoon out of the tunnels, sunset shimmer couldn't see a way out of the water, but she could see the only way out of this place. She stopped kicking and let the current take them, only inches away from the fall, "hold your breath" she told flash, he obeyed, and the two ducked under the water. The current pulled them closer and closer to certain death, until the ground opened up beneath them, and they fell through the waterfall, into an icy pool below, their bodies nowhere to be seen.


	23. Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22: CLOSER AND CLOSER

"sister, I have your tea" princess Luna said cheerfully, her sister coughed awake, "chuh, Luna, I need to tell you something" she sputtered, "of course sister" Luna grinned, "I do not believe I will make it past this sickness, if I don't, the kingdom with need you" Luna on the outside was stunned, but inside, this is exactly what she wanted. "Of course sister, I would do anything for you, you know that I would, but who would listen to me? I'm not a queen, I'm just a princess, and not even the great princess celestia" she exclaimed. Celestia knew her sister was right, "Luna, bring me the royal scribe" she requested, Luna called to the scrawny colt with a small ponytail, and tri-focals. "You called your majesty?" he asked, "yes, I need you to document what I am about to say" she coughed in reply. "yes princess" the scribe took out his quill and parchment, and waited for the princess to tell him what to write, "I princess celestia, here-by declare my sister, princess Luna, to take my place as ruler of equestria, until I can assume my royal duties as princess" the scribe finished the declaration, and princess celestia shakily lifted the royal stamp seal with her flickering gold magic, sealing the parchment, making it permanent. Princess Luna grinned with satisfaction, her plan was going perfectly. "You won't regret this, dear sister"

Sunset shimmer burst out of the water, her mane and tail crystallized with frost and ice from the cold. She swam to the bank, and she swore she nearly coughed up a fish, she searched the bank for flash, anxious to get the #$% out of here. she found him a few feet away, his wing looking worse, and his shoulder was bruised and scraped, almost as if he landed on it, she used her magic to cut him out of the magic proof shackles and carefully lifted him onto her back. as if things couldn't get worse, the rain started up, the storm had come from the west, so it was like magic elixir on the forest, the frost melted and sunset began to warm up as she carried her brother to, well, she didn't exactly know. She was stumbling around in the rain blind, gagging in water and leaves blowing through the dreary trees, when a small pink light caught her eye. She squinted through the rain to see what it was, it was hovering in the wind, glowing a soothing pink, it danced and twirled through the wind, when sunset shimmer realized it wasn't hovering, it was fluttering. The pink light was a glowing, magical butterfly, and it didn't look affected by the storm at all. It just fluttered in front of the fiery mare, until two to three more appeared behind it, glowing all kinds of colors, from green to blue to red to purple, they were beautiful. "come with us" a small voice whispered, "who's there!" sunset jumped, "be not afraid of us, we were sent by your mother, princess star catcher, to guide you out of this storm" whispered the pink butterfly, "you can... talk?" sunset shimmer asked the magical butterflies, "yes, we come from the mystical place called winsome falls, concealed in the rainbow waters until awakened by our princess, and now we have come to aid you on your quest" the blue butterfly replied. "Quest? What quest? All I want to do is find my brother, and get this one back home" she exclaimed as she pointed to flash, "we will explain everything once we lead you to safety" said the purple butterfly, the butterflies flew into the rain, sunset shimmer following them. They lead the mare and her unconscious brother to a cave, concealed by hanging vines, sunset set her brother on the mossy ground, him groaning in his sleep. "We will watch over you and your friends until your mother is free" said the red butterfly, "free? I thought my mother was dead?" sunset asked, "no, not dead, just hiding, she is not safe as long as medusa lives, and only the elements of harmony can stop her" replied the green butterfly, "well, I'll find them, and they'll stop her, I know they will, I have faith in my friends" she said, "only when united with the lost element, will medusa be defeated once and for all, without it, she will rise to conquer us all" the butterfly sighed, sunset shimmer knew the butterflies were right, if not with the seventh element, they weren't powerful enough to defeat the evil princess, she would just rise again, all would be lost, "but, what if I'm not like everypony thinks? What if I'm a monster? like medusa, what if I turn out evil and try to destroy the kingdom again?" sunset asked, "you have great courage sunset shimmer, you took the offer to pose as princess twilight when you knew the risks, because you knew it was right, and you leaped into a freezing river to save your brother only hours after you found out he was your family, you risked your own life to save others, that it what true courage is..." said the butterfly, sunset shimmer looked at the concealing charm around her neck, and remembered something the princess would always say to her when she started to lose hope,

"sunset, look at the stone you made, what do you see?" asked princess celestia, "the night sky, it's dark and scary, and gets stronger and, I'm afraid" filly sunset replied, "yes, your power is like the night sky, but look, there are stars throughout the dark sky, do you see?" she asked, sunset remembered looking at the dark starry stone, and replying, "yah, so what?" she asked, "as long as there are stars in the night, there will be light in your heart, the night may be cold and dark, but the stars are what remind us all that no matter how dark it may be, there is always light in our hearts, and light in the night, to bring hope, and give us courage" she explained gently.

sunset gazed at the sun and moon pendant, it seemed to shimmer with the colors of the rainbow, including violet, sky blue, light pink, white, orange, yellow, and fire red. She couldn't see it, but her eyes glowed the same colors, "I need to get back to canterlot, and help my friends save equestria!" she exclaimed proudly. But by the time she looked up, the butterflies were gone. "hello?" she called quietly, flash stirred beside her, it was the dead of night, and pouring outside, sunset shimmer decided to leave tomorrow, then would her brother be strong enough to make the journey, and she would be well rested. She laid her head on her front hooves and closed her eyes, in nearly a minute, she fell asleep.


	24. Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23: FOREST CHASE

twilight and flash had been working themselves ragged trying to dig out of the mines they had been trapped in. flash gathered his strength and kicked the wall with all his might, it crumbled and fell into a pile of stones, luckily he leaped out of the way before they squashed him. "Are you alright?" twilight asked, "Yah, I think I broke something" he replied as a vertical tunnel soared upward to a smudge of daylight. "looks like we found our way out" he grinned, "one problem, how do we get up there, it's too narrow to climb, and those spires jutting out through it would rip our wings apart if we tried to fly" twilight objected. flash was thinking when a whisper sounded in his ear, "we can help" it said, "what?" he asked, "I didn't say anything" twilight replied, "no, we did" said the small voice, flash thought he was going crazy, when a glowing pink butterfly appeared in front of his face. "did, you say that?" he asked the glowing bug, "yes, my name is hope, me and my colony were sent by your mother to help you and your sister" said the pink butterfly, "why does everypony keep saying I have a sister!" flash snapped, "you have two actually, and you'll lose them both if you and princess twilight do not escape" said hope. "but we have only one way out and it's too dangerous to get up there without getting shish-kabobed" twilight added, "yes there is your highness" a red butterfly said, "how" twilight and flash said in unison, "like this" hope said, dozens of glowing colored butterflies surrounded the two ponies in a spiral of light, lifting them into the air with special magic even twilight had never heard of. The two ponies were gently breezed off of the ground and were carried with the up most carefulness, until they came closer and closer to seeing the light of day. When they burst out of the mine and onto the soft and green grass, they were so relieved they were out of that dark place, but frantic and wolf-like barking disturbed their joy. A chesnut colored male hamster came sprinting through the tree line, "Hercules?" twilight gasped, "Who?" flash asked, "sunset shimmer's pet" she replied, Hercules bounded up to the two of them and barked worriedly and gestured for them to follow him. Flash and twilight exchanged glances and followed the hamster into the forest.

Flash's eyes blinked open, what happened, he thought, he was in a cavern and sunset shimmer was nowhere to be seen, the last thing he remembered was... his thoughts were interrupted by a searing pain in his wing. It was twisted and bruised, it looked broken, he couldn't leave it like this, he broke a tree root and held his breath as he snapped his wing into place, and he tore some large jungle leaves from the cave walls and set his wing, wrapping the broken wing in the soft leaves. After a few deep breaths, his wing didn't hurt as much, he glanced at a blink of red in the cavern. it was a small mound of fresh apples, set there for him when he woke up, he couldn't help smiling at the memory that sunset shimmer was his sister, it made sense, they looked alike, they thought alike, and you don't even know how relieved he was that they never kissed when they were dating, they weren't even technically dating, he just thought they were best friends who hung out a lot, and when they stopped hanging out, she was never so awful to him. He stopped thinking about it when he bit into one of the fresh red apples, it was delicious, and he supposed it tasted better now because he was a horse. The light sound of stirring water caught his attention, he walked through the hanging vines draping the cave into the outside, and his sister was standing by a stream, drinking from the clear water. he had an idea to mess with her, he creped behind a bush, her ears perked up, but once she looked around she went back to drinking her water, of course she knew that flash was trying to sneak up on her, so she lead him on like a fish on a line. he crept up closer and closer until he was right behind her, he reared up to pusher into the water, when her horn sparked with aqua-green magic, and suddenly she was on the other side of the stream, she looked at him with a devilish grin, her horn glowed with magic, as did flash's front hooves, she stepped back and flash fell into the water, sunset burst out laughing as he flailed around in the water to get his bearings, "what are you looking at" he snapped, "you, I can't believe you didn't think of me doing that!" she cackled, he couldn't help laughing too, he climbed out of the stream, sunset shimmer galloped across to him, splashing through the water and laughing. "Admit it, I got you" she said while she playfully punched his arm, "fine, you got me" he sighed, "heck yah! I don't remember me ever getting you for fun since sophomore year when I filled your locker with bouncy balls, it took you forever to get them all!" she laughed, flash laughed with her, the two laughed together for at least five minutes, talking about funny stuff that happened at school, "I hope I can get back there soon" he sighed, turning the conversation serious. the silence stretched for a while, but rustling of the bushes around them snapped them out of it, four diamond dog guards riding ponies, along with two changeling soldiers, emerged from the underbrush, sumac at the front of the group. "I knew it" he said darkly, sunset gasped, "run now!" she took off running away from the changelings and dogs, but something was amiss, flash had stumbled and was trying to pull himself off the ground, while the soldiers were gaining. Without another thought, sunset shimmer was racing to his side, she swept him up onto her back and galloped through the trees, the soldiers chasing them through the forest. sunset turned her head and smiled at her brother, he looked like he was struggling to hang on, "haven't you ever ridden a horse before?" she asked, "not one that was my sister!" he gasped, this made sunset laugh, her laugh was interrupted by the sound of dark magic, zooming past them like bullets. sunset shimmer raced through the trees, trying to think of a way to lose them, flash pointed out a part of the wood that was filled with plants and creatures that were not to be messed with, "hey look!" sunset saw that if someone who wasn't experienced in the forest, the magical plants would devour them, "great idea, let's go!" she sped up her stride, the diamond dogs on their ponies close behind them, unaware of their trick. sunset felt the adrenaline pump through her veins, the wind through her mane, the sweat down her face as she ran, the dog gaining, flash saw an opportunity to lose him, he grabbed a stick off the ground, inspecting it while keeping balance on the galloping mare, he thought it looked enough like a spear, before he could hesitate, he threw it towards the diamond dog, it making a direct hit and shattering his left stirrup. he lost his balance and tumbled off the pony, who was still galloping, he neighed his thanks and sunset gave her brother praise for that good of aim, "nice shot!" they thought they were in the clear, when another diamond dog, sunset recognized as Otis, leaped onto the path behind them in the other dog's place, his eyes sparked with determination and hate, he was gaining fast and sunset was distracted by the huge and very low ledge that was coming up, she then thought of a perfect way to get away from Otis! "When we get to that ledge, you jump over it, on my count..." she called, flash nodded in agreement. "One..." Otis was picking up speed, his pony clearly about to collapse from exhaustion, "two..." the ledge was coming really close, and Otis was only a hoof length away from dragging flash right off of sunset's back, "THREE!" sunset slid onto her side, and flash leaped onto the low ledge, his sister ducking beneath it, once she emerged from the ledge, flash was running beside her, they looked back at Otis, who unfortunately didn't think of the ledge and was smacked right of the saddle, the pony smirking and trotting away in triumph. They whinnied with laughter, when more magical bullets of magic shot their way, the two siblings quickly dodging them. sunset shimmer saw what the soldier was trying to do, split them up so he could take them down one at a time, well then fine, sunset thought, "hey, he's trying to get us to split up!" she called to her brother, "and?" he asked, waiting for another idea, "let's give him what he wants!" she grinned, she pointed up ahead to a split in the forest path, a huge rock wall split the paths in two, the siblings sprinted faster and faster, the changeling matching their speed. When sunset and flash were almost a foot away from slamming into the wall, they split into two ponies, each taking a different path through the forest, the changeling tried to slide to a halt, but ended up smacking face first into the hard rock wall. sunset shimmer took the path going through vines and shrubs along a stone pathway, leading to a canyon river somewhere, flash was high up on a narrow ledge, a changeling soldier advancing towards him, it was very difficult to keep balance on the narrow path and still be faster that the changeling behind him, he then saw a rock leading to the path that sunset was on, he jumped up onto it, leaving the changeling to topple over the side of the canyon from going too fast to slow down. sunset kept running, searching for her brother in all the chaos, when she was about to go back and find him, a body dropped down behind her, flash had come down from a higher path and was following her again. She looked back at him with pride and determination, whinnying with laughter, her pride was cut short as she skidded to a halt in front of the crumbled path, if she had gone any farther she would have fallen right into the roaring river below them. The destroyed road gave the brother and sister to catch their breath, but then heard the thundering sound of sumac and his wing-ponies gaining on them, they had to think fast, sunset shimmer spotted a ledge that extended to a rock formation above them, but out of sight of the changelings. "Get on my shoulders" she ordered, flash obeyed and she gave him a boost up to the ledge, once he shifted his weight, he turned to grab her hoof and lift her onto the rock with him. when the soldiers reached the crumbling path, they were dumbstruck, "where are they?" sumac demanded, rock pieces bounced down the rock wall as sunset and flash made their way up the canyon, "they're up there!" his left wing-pony acknowledged, sumac and his soldiers scavenged the rock formation, surrounding the two siblings, they had no way out. sunset shimmer and lash were wandering around the top, trying to find a way around the changelings, sunset had peered over the left side, only to be shot at by dark magic, zooming into the sky with the sound of gun-fire, she slowed her movement until she was backed up to the edge of the cliff, flash at her side. he saw that her gaze was fixed on something, he followed her eyes to what was directly in front of them, "oh no" he muttered, across from where the two ponies stood, was a deep gorge with a raging river at the bottom, and beyond that, was a stretch of land, away from the forest, away from sumac and his warriors, back to canterlot, back home. "It's our only way out of here" sunset said to break the silence, she closed her eyes, never in her life had she been so focused, so concentrated, she cleared her mind of everything, all except one thing, freedom. her aqua-green eyes flew open, filled with bravery and strength, she lifted flash onto her back, since he couldn't do this on his own, she sprinted out of her statue-like form, galloping faster and closer to the edge of the cliff, ten feet left of cliff, five feet, two feet, her strength was all gathered at the very tip of the edge, her body winded up like a spring. she pushed off and was slicing through the air like a blade, the world itself seemed to slow down, her very body soaring in the wind like an eagle, sumac and his wing-ponies gazed up at them in awe at the wingless pony, practically flying as the sun shimmered threw her mane like liquid fire, shining threw her magic pendant and creating a rainbow effect around them. The soft grassy ground hit them like a donkey-punch, it hurt, but it felt good, like when you rip off a bandage, or when you pull out a splinter, they brought themselves to their hooves, gasping for breath. they looked at each other with pride and gratitude, smiling and panting, no words were needed, they knew what the other would say, "that, was, awesome!" flash exclaimed, sunset shimmer laughed in return, her gaze shifted to the other side of the canyon, where sumac and his wing-ponies were standing, just standing there, looking at them. Her mood turned serious, she had just done what other wingless ponies would consider impossible, she just risked her life for freedom and justice, and she would die if it could restore peace and harmony. Sumac stood there, and all he did, was nod his head once, and sunset shimmer did the same in return. He knew her courage, he knew her need for justice, she had not seen it in him when they first met, but that was all he wanted, she may not know why, but he wanted justice for his kind, not for medusa, but for harmony. He ordered his wing-ponies to retreat back into the forest, them clearly not happy about it, but they followed the general back into the everfree forest. sunset shimmer and flash exchanged glances, "hey" she said, "hey hey" he replied, she then burst out laughing and cheering, her brother joined her in their celebration of escape and triumph, jumping and rearing like two foals who accidently drank extra caffeinated coffee. Sunset looked at her brother, she waved her hoof forward, gesturing for him to take the lead in their journey back to canterlot, he laughed and the two reared up and then galloped north, the direction to the castle of canterlot.


	25. Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24: LYING LOW

Twilight and flash had made it back to ponyville, hoping to find some friends who could help, specifically five mares twilight knew could help. they stopped as soon as they saw, royal guards everywhere, guarding the outer parts of ponyville, twilight overheard some of them talking, "queen Luna wants everywhere in equestria to be cleansed, if the law is broken, unleash the fear" said the guard. "What did he say?" flash asked, his voice filled with disbelief, "did he just say Queen Luna?" "What did they mean by cleansed?" twilight asked, "Twilight!" a familiar voice whispered, twilight turned to five mares hiding behind a clutter of bushes, it was her friends! But why were they hiding? she and flash creped over to where they were crouching, the voice who called her over was pinkie pie, they looked the same, except applejack, rarity, and rainbow dash were covered in dirt and ash, there manes littered with leaves and dried mud. "what happened to you girls?" twilight demanded, "we were ponynapped by changelings!" rainbow dash snapped, rarity continued, "and they locked us away in some prison camp in the everfree forest" "if it wasn't for sunset shimmer, we never would've escaped, and neither would all those other ponies" applejack added, "yah, and when we got here, those guards had already infested the place" said rainbow dash, "when we found them at zecora's hut, they told us of how princess Luna had been poisoning princess celestia to get to the throne, and framed sunset shimmer for your death, but we did actually think you were dead, sorry" fluttershy explained. "It's not princess Luna, it's their sister princess medusa" said twilight, "well then where's the real princess Luna?" rainbow demanded, "I have an idea, but it's pretty crazy..." "twi, this whole week has been crazy if you haven't noticed" applejack interrupted, "as I was saying, when princess celestia gave me wings, she transported me to this, starry wonderland, that I thought was far beyond my reach, but princess Luna is smart and clever, it seems like that place would be the perfect place for her to hide, I think we should find that place, and bring Luna back to save equestria" twilight proposed, "why can't we do it? I mean we do know where the elements of harmony are, let's just use those?" asked rainbow dash. "medusa is smarter than us, she could find a way around the magic of the elements, but she's princess Luna's sister, Luna knows her, knows how she thinks, if we find her, then we may have found our victory" twilight praised. she and her friends made their way to zecora's hut in the everfree forest, "so, why was sunset shimmer framed for my death?" twilight asked, "she was posing as you while you were imprisoned, so the wedding for you and prince blueblood wouldn't be canceled, and she was caught and arrested, and leaving us to think she was still evil, and you were dead" rarity explained, "I know that sunset shimmer is not evil, she's the farthest thing from, when she ran away from equestria, a dark force started to put bad thoughts in her head, that's why she did all of those horrible things" said twilight, "so that's how she knew about your crown" rainbow dash whispered, twilight knocked on zecora's door, when a ruckus was going on inside. "Zecora?" twilight asked the door, a striped hoof zoomed out of the door and herded them all inside, "good of you all to come so quickly, now tell me why all those guards are acting so sickly" zecora demanded, "they're under orders, from medusa, who's posing as princess Luna" twilight explained. "treachery is at hoof, but to bring peace once more, would require a plan that is fool-proof" zecora had many old scrolls and books scattered around the room, like she had been looking for something, "zecora, what is all this?" twilight asked, zecora sighed with sorrow, she picked up one of the scrolls, and laid it out on the table. What was written on it was amazing, it looked like a calendar, with rings and moon and sun cycles painting it, and with writing all around the pictures in a language twilight didn't understand. "this is the calendar cycle of the blood moon, and without that spell of yours your friend is doomed" zecora sighed, "what?" twilight asked, clearly astonished, zecora took some shimmery dust from one of her ceramic pots and threw it into the air, creating an image that looked like sunset shimmer, "as the blood moon approaches, her darkness grows stronger, and it will be so powerful, that she can hold it back no longer, the dark will be so strong, that you won't have time, for the dark will kill her from the inside" the dust sunset shimmer had transformed into a horrible creature with wings of a dragon, and a coat red as blood, and dark smoke surrounded her and engulfed her with a small scream, making twilight and the others gasp in horror. twilight had to do something, then she remembered seeing something in the library a few days ago, "zecora can you help us get to the library without being seen?" she asked, zecora nodded and took some Smokey elixir from one of her shelves, the liquid flew out of the bottle and engulfed the six mares, rainbow dash coughed, "what did that stuff do to us?" she said, a scream from rarity answered her question, she looked like a completely different pony! Her mane had turned blue, her coat had turned snow white, and her eyes gold, wearing the armor of a royal guard. they all looked like members of the royal guard, some had grey coats and silver mane, and others looked like rarity, "this is perfect, with these disguises we can slip into the golden oaks library without being noticed" twilight praised, "I'll stay here, if sunset comes through the forest I'll see her, if she escaped that is" flash suggested, "good idea, and i know her, she has the guts to escape and not be seen" twilight replied. "Let's go" she said as she and her friends raced through the forest into ponyville.

Twilight and the others had blended in perfectly, no one even gave them the time of day! they were a bit new to royal guards though, so they were very nervous about being caught, one guard walked up to applejack, "isn't it great, we're defiantly gettin' a raise after this" he boasted, "yep, you bet 'ya" applejack stuttered, "we really hate to be leaving so soon, but we've been called for a shift at the library" rarity butted in, applejack clearly thankful for it. the guard saluted and left them alone, they made their way to the golden oaks library, rarity, fluttershy, and pinkie pie helping twilight inside while rainbow dash and applejack kept watch outside. But once they stepped inside, they were astonished at who was waiting there, the princess of the night herself. "Princess Luna! What are you doing here? you could get caught and thrown in prison by medusa" twilight warned the princess, "the day i abandon my kingdom, princess twilight, is the day celestia gives me the duty of raising the sun every day" Luna said, "why is your sister doing this?" twilight demanded. Luna sighed, clearly deep in thought, "once, my sister was good, her heart untouched by darkness, but as time passed, and celestia and i got all the praise, and she went on unappreciated, her darkness grew, she manipulated the fears of the creatures known as changelings, she convinced them that we were responsible for the plague they had been cursed with, when medusa brought it down on them, i will not fight her, i will not hurt another one of my sisters, but you can stop her" princess Luna said hopefully. "when i was very young, and medusa had first attacked the kingdom, my parents couldn't bear to hurt her, so when they used the elements of harmony, one was hidden away, so medusa would not surely die, even i do not know what the lost element is, or who represents it, but if you find it, and unite the others with it, you can defeat my wicked sister, once and for all" princess Luna held up the gold necklaces and crown with her midnight blue magic, they were the necklaces that held the elements of harmony, along with twilight's now gem less crown, which had been replaced. The ponies each took a necklace, and twilight took the crown, when she looked back, Princess Luna was gone, but she had left an inscription in the wooden floorboards. "what does it say?" asked fluttershy, twilight read it carefully, "a unicorns magic, as dark as night, shall reveal the stone when it meets with pure light, the sun shall point the way, and a cure will be found, and if you fail, you'll be dead in the ground" twilight was a bit stunned by that last part, but she thought through it anyway, "it's a riddle" she said, rarity rolled her eyes, "why can't the princess' ever give a clear answer?" she complained, "anyway, a unicorns magic as dark as night, that could mean just dark magic, and stone in pure light, that's confusing..." while twilight was analyzing the clues in the riddle, spike was leaning on the table in the middle of the room. he then noticed, the wooden bust of a horse on the table, it had a notch in the center of its forehead, right where a horn should be, he started to search the table for a button or latch to make the horn come up, he found it at the legs of the table, he turned the little nob, and a horn, sharp as a dagger, and black as the starless night, rose out of the horse's head. At the tip was a blue gem, it looked like a harmony gem, like twilight was talking about, but she was so deep in thought she didn't notice the horn on the bust. spike looked at the ceiling, it was ensripted with a golden sun, with a window in the center, shall reveal the stone when it meets with pure light, spike thought, the horn must need to come into contact with the sunlight, spike climbed up to the window with a hoof mirror. he dangled from the ceiling like a spider on a web, he caught the light perfectly and tried his best to make it hit the horn just right, when the beam caught itself on the very tip of the black horn, making it erupt in light, the white light wove itself into the wooden head and traveled down the table like veins, making the table top spin slowly, getting the ponies' attention. "spike, what did you do?" twilight demanded, "i think i solved the riddle" he said proudly, the table top stopped spinning and rotated itself into the wooden trunk it rested on, and causing the wooden bust to split in two, revealing a tattered old book in the center of the broken head. twilight, rarity, fluttershy, and pinkie pie were starring with their mouths open in surprise, twilight took the book with her magic and opened it carefully, flipping through the pages and reading bits and pieces. it was a story book filled with old legends and ponytails, like the story of the brave pony Perseus chopping off the evil creature, Medusa's head, if only it were that easy, twilight thought. She stopped on a bookmarked page, it had a picture of the tree of harmony, but something was different, the elements of harmony were still there, but there were more of them! The six sparkling branches hung from the center, with a magical gem attached to each one, and twilight's cutie mark at the center of the trunk, holding the element of magic. but there were six branches instead of five, and the sixth branch held an aqua-green gem that shimmered with the rest of the elements, one orange, one light pink, one electric blue, one dark purple, one red, and the one aqua-green. "Girls look!" twilight exclaimed as she held up the book, "so, it's just the tree of harmony" said rainbow dash, "yes, but look, there weren't always six elements of harmony, there used to be seven! And if we find it, and unite it with the other elements, we could defeat medusa!" twilight said proudly. "one problem, that still leaves us dumbstruck on how to help sunset shimmer" said rarity, "and if we don't, she'll die" fluttershy added, twilight read more of the old book, "wait, it says here, that the sap of the tree of harmony has extraordinary healing powers, it can heal everypony and everything, even trees!" twilight read aloud, "can it heal sunset's dark heart?" rarity asked, twilight skimmed through the paragraphs. "It says that her magic is what the ancients would call 'a starless heart' being as her heart is a dark as a starless night, and the book says that 'an act of true friendship brings light to a dark heart'" "well that's not a sure thing! if the tree of harmony cures it, then why does it say to do that instead!" rainbow demanded, "rainbow, the sap stops her from dying, the act of true friendship will banish the darkness from her heart forever" twilight explained, "well, that's convenient, because if princess celestia is sick, then the sap could cure her too, but we're using it for somepony else" pinkie pie sighed, everypony gasped, "pinkie pie that's brilliant!" twilight praised. They could use the magic sap to heal princess celestia and she would be all better! approaching hoof steps interrupted the conversation, "rainbow dash, weren't you supposed to be watching the door?" twilight asked, rainbow replied with a blank "ummm" the guards were coming, the six friends scurried up to the ceiling, rainbow dash and fluttershy hovering quietly while the others hid behind all the books. The guard outside walked into the library, clearly bored out of his mind, he took a book off the shelf, flipped through the pages and then tossed it onto the ground, twilight clearly irritated that somepony would treat a book so carelessly "how could he just throw it on the ground like it was nothing? That's a collector's item!" twilight whispered to rainbow dash. The guard took another book off the shelf, not noticing applejack's face hiding behind it, he would have seen her if not for rarity accidently uttering a small sneeze. "aw-choo" she whimpered, the guard looked up from his book, now as vigilant as ever, when another guard came in, "hey, sumac says we rally at dawn, so get your hide moving'" he demanded, "alright alright, I'm comin' I'm comin'" he put the book back on the shelf, and letting applejack sigh with relief, the two guards left the library and walked towards city hall. "We need to get going, now! Before any guards see us."


	26. Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25: NEEDING A HOOFICURE

Sunset shimmer and flash had been galloping for hours, stopping to rest or have water every now and then. They were running along ghastly gorge so they knew which direction they were going, when sunset must have tripped on a rock or something, because her legs buckled and she tumbled down the hill, running into her brother and knocking him to the ground. they rose to their hooves, sunset rising more shakily, "what the hay!" he said, more surprised than angry, "i don't know what happened, i must have tripped, sorry" she apologized, "well, no harm no foul, don't worry about it... worry about your hooves!" flash exclaimed, "what!? After all the #$% we just went through you're worried about your hooves!" sunset shimmer protested, "no, I'm worried about yours, they're turning red!" he pointed out. Sunset looked at her hooves, he was right! They were turning a, fearfully familiar shade of red, and it was spreading into her coat, turning it the same red. "and your mane..." flash added, he was right to be shocked, sunset shimmer's coat was turning blood red, and her mane was turning pitch black as well, and she suddenly felt very tired, like she was about to pass out. she pushed the feeling aside and shook herself to wake herself up, "no matter, we should keep moving" she suggested, "it's that dark magic medusa was talking about, isn't it?" flash accused, "okay fine, let's pretend this is something big, even if it was, I'm fine as long as i wear my amulet, see" sunset held up her pendant so her brother could see, "still, we should get back quicker, it could be serious" flash said, sunset shimmer gave him a look that said, "everything will be fine" but she was just as worried as he was, this had never happened before, and it felt like her energy was draining fast, the sooner they got back to the castle the better.

Twilight had been reading the ancient book from the golden oaks library for hours as she and the others walked through the everfree forest to get to the tree of harmony. It was full of spells and incantations that twilight had never even heard of! "magic deflecting spell, mountain leveling spell, memory changing spell, it's all right here!" twilight exclaimed, "you grabbed the book but you couldn't grab some food, i feel like i haven't eaten in weeks!" rainbow complained, "might as well be, those icky changelings didn't give us anything but grubs and rock sludge for food, of course i didn't eat any, but luckily we escaped before i had to" said rarity. "If not for sunset shimmer's help, we might not have escaped at all, i sure hope we help her before it's too late" applejack sighed as she took off her hat. "speaking of which, i don't even know what act of true friendship will work, i mean, do we give her a pat on the back or something?" asked rainbow dash, "no rainbow, real friendship, like our friendship, comes from within, we all have been through so much together, it's obvious we're friends, and an act of true friendship is like..." "it's like telling your friend the absolute truth, even though it could hurt you, because you'd want them to be happy" said applejack, "or no matter how much someone has done in the past, you forgave them, because you can see the true good in them" said fluttershy, "or sacrificing yourself for a friend, risking your own life to save others, like when sunset shimmer stayed behind in those mines so we could escape" rarity added. "we'll help sunset shimmer, not because we pity her, or because we don't want her to turn into a demon again, we're helping her because she's our friend, and we'd do anything for her, because she's like my sister, you all are like my sisters, and friendship may be magical, but family is the tightest bond of all, and you all are like my family" twilight smiled, almost bringing her friends to tears. They all smiled and pulled each other into a group hug, a low growl interrupted the touching moment. "Uh, spike?" asked twilight, spike gulped and was sweating nervously, "wa... wasn't me twilight" he stuttered. The growls grew louder as the creature came closer. The underbrush in front of the six friends trembled as the creature emerged from the dark ravine, a large male dragon stomped out of the shadows and roared to scare the ponies away. his hot dragons breath blew steam into the ponies' faces, making them tremble with fear, "you are brave to trespass on my land, i have had enough of ponies trying to take me from my home, trying to make me obey them in battle..." twilight interrupted, "wait, ponies keep trying to make you obey them?" she asked, the dragon huffed at the alicorn, "you know not of the royal guard of queen Luna, coming to use me as a weapon of fear and destruction?" he asked. "no, we had no idea that the royal guard would do something so selfish and inconsiderate" fluttershy replied innocently, "what's your name sir?" she asked kindly, the dragon huffed smoke from his nose, then softened and replied, "sir Lionel, miss pony" Lionel replied politely, with his blue scaled hide and gold spikes, and sharp violet eyes. "well, Lionel, we are very sorry about those rude guards trying to take your land" fluttershy apologized, "it's alright, you seem nice enough, you seem tired, where are you going?" Lionel asked, "we are going to the tree of harmony, to collect it's sap and save our friend" fluttershy explained, "it is quite a walk, allow me" Lionel stretched down his leathery wing, like stairs to climb onto his back, he was going to fly them to celestia and Luna's old castle! "thank you sir Lionel, we have traveled very far these past few days" rarity thanked as she trotted onto Lionel's scaly back with post haste, "thank you sir, my name is twilight, that's rarity, rainbow dash, pinkie pie, applejack, and fluttershy" twilight introduced, "and this is spike" she added as spike hurried onto the dragon, ready to get out of the forest. "Hold on tight" Lionel suggested, the ponies did as he said and each gripped one of his long spikes, as he flapped his leathery wings and rose into the air. Once they were well above the tree line, he thrust himself forward, flapping his wings as they flew into the distance. "Lionel, may i ask you a question?" twilight asked, "you just did" Lionel chuckled, twilight couldn't help but laugh a little too, it's times like these when you need to have fun and laugh with your friends, or you'll lose yourself forever, "it's just that, why would Luna try to recruit you and make you obey her?" she asked the dragon, he hesitated for a moment, and then answered, "your queen is building an army, and there is no need to call her by her false name, i know who she is, i can sense it, as can all other creatures of the forest, medusa is an evil name, not spoken without seriousness or fear, for millennia we have feared her return, and in those years she has gathered followers, whispered to them from her stone prison..." twilight remembered sunset shimmer telling her before she left for the unicorn range that, when she was at canterlot high, the statue of the school's mascot would whisper things, things she couldn't quite hear, and when she tried to listen closer, something would snap at her, a crack in the ground beneath the statue, a small electric shock from the cool marble, or the very statue becoming so cold it burned her skin, the thought hadn't occurred to her that medusa wasn't very much imprisoned if she made sunset shimmer's life miserable. "Her darkness has effected more than your friend, and you think out loud sometimes, did you know that?" Lionel pointed out, "medusa's whispers have ruined so many lives, the king of the crystal empire was happy ruling with his two brothers, but her whispers convinced him that he had to kill to get what he wanted, so he murdered his brothers and took the kingdom for himself, or that miss-matched friend of yours..." "you mean discord?" twilight interrupted, "yes, him, his parents had been killed in the war between medusa and your princess' he had moved on and was living in the badlands like a normal being, but medusa saw his power, and convinced him that it was celestia and Luna's fault his family was gone, so he attacked equestria and turned it to chaos" Lionel told the story like he'd heard it a million times, which he probably had, the creatures of the everfree forest are known for having stories to tell, and if you impress one and earn it's loyalty, they will tell you their stories. "Even one of your own princess' fell to their sister's magic, her darkness has been around for centuries, and if you and all seven elements don't stop her, we will all fall to obey her" Lionel warned as he touched down onto the soft ground outside of the ancient castle ruins. "Thank you Lionel, we won't fail, i hope" twilight said that last part under her breath, Lionel nodded his head in reply, then flew off into the distance. "so, even if the seventh element is at the tree of harmony, where is it, where do we even look?" applejack questioned, "i think i have a pretty good idea on where it's hidden" said twilight, quite sure of herself that she knew where to look, she stepped lively down the stone steps to where the tree of harmony rested, her friends followed. They walked in silence to the cavern, when the tree's light was visible through the eerie mist, twilight made out two silhouettes, standing beside the tree, one was clearly struggling, the other helping it stay on its hooves. "Everypony duck!" twilight whispered, "what is it Twi?" applejack asked, "They could be medusa's guards" she replied. "Okay, on three, we jump out, and get them down so i can get the sap from the tree" twilight explained, her friends nodded in reply. "Okay, one... two... three!" they leapt out of their hiding spot, startling the two ponies beside the tree. But when twilight looked at them, they weren't at all medusa's guards, but two very familiar faces.


	27. Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26: THREE TYPES OF MAGIC

Sunset looked awful, her coat was almost completely Blood red, and her hooves had morphed from their normal appearance to those of an ox or a boar. Her mane and tail were pitch black, and she looked like she could pass out any second, "sunset shimmer what happened?" twilight gasped, flash was besides her helping her stay up, "that dark magic inside her, it's..." "Killing her" twilight finished his sentence for him. "we came here to try to collect sap from that tree to save her" applejack continued "well then let's get to it" she said impatiently, she took a spile out of her saddlebag and jammed it into the trunk with a rock, when the spile was no more than a millimeter before the magic tree exploded in white light. The eight ponies shielded their eyes from the burning light, when it died down, the elements of harmony, resting in the tree, glowed with their individual colors, and veining down to the roots, making three glowing flower-buds sprout from nothing. They each opened to reveal a small, sleeping, pony-like creature, with glittery wings like a butterfly's, and magical antenna one their heads. Each one was a different color, one pink, one purple, and one yellow, they were obviously breezies, but were different from the ones they'd seen before. They each yawned and stretched their tiny hooves as they woke, "has it been a thousand years already?" the purple breezie asked, the yellow breezie rubbed the sleep from her green eyes, "maybe, let's ask them" she suggested. The breezies flittered up from their flowers and examined the ponies around them, the pink breezie noticed the spile in the tree of harmony and her attitude shifted from sleepy to defensive, "hey! What did you do to our tree?!" she demanded, "your tree!" the ponies all said at the same time, "yah, it has a metal thing sticking out of it, can't you see it's hurting it?" she accused. "no, and we're deeply sorry if we offended you by taking the sap" fluttershy apologized, "wait, you just wanted the sap?" the yellow breezie asked, "well of course they only want the sap, they obviously need it to heal their friend here, she looks terrible" replied the purple breezie, "well why didn't you say so! Allow me to introduce ourselves, I'm tra la la, that there is zipzee, and over there is tiddlywinks" the pink breezie said, now more welcoming. "what kind of breezies are you?" rainbow dash asked, "we've seen breezies before, but they were nothing like you three" added fluttershy, "there are other types of breezies, the ones you saw are what we call drifters, they just live in their own world, no worries, but our breezie kind lives right here in equestria, we're stronger, and can travel faster with our trusty butterfly wings" tra la la explained as she buzzed around the ponies. "we three were selected to be guardian breezies, to look after the tree of harmony, we were given the three most powerful magic's to protect it, mine is friendship" said tra la la, "i represent family" said the yellow breezie, now recognized as zipzee, "and my magic is love" said tiddlywinks dreamily. sunset shimmer's pain filled groan snapped the breezies into a more serious state, "so what exactly is wrong with your friend?" zipzee asked, twilight sighed with pity, "her heart is filled with dark magic, and we think the sap from the tree of harmony will heal her before she..." twilight couldn't continue. zipzee looked at sunset with curiosity, looking at her goat hooves, breezing through her now black mane, and examining the patches that remained of her orange coat, "girls, i think we just found them all!" she said excitedly, she zipped over to her friends and they whispered something twilight couldn't here, the three of them occasionally looking back at the seven mares then continuing their conversation. "What are they talking about?" sunset choked, twilight shrugged, "we need to show you something, very important" tra la la whispered to them. The three breezies buzzed in spiral patterns around the roots, trunk, and branches of the tree of harmony, leaving a trail of magical looking glitter as they flew. the elements of harmony glowed and grew roots of light down to the tips of the roots, and making seven colored flowers bloom in unison, the two outer flowers were orange and pink, the two inner flowers were sky blue and springtime yellow, the flowers sitting on either side of the center flower were white and fire red, and the middle was violet. Tra la la, tiddlywinks, and zipzee sprinkled the magic glitter on each of the colored buds, the glowing specs looked something like pixie dust. Each bud bloomed to reveal a beautifully crafted, gem patterned, golden key. Each key had a gem exactly like an element of harmony at the head, a gold neck, and some kind of design that fit each pony's personality in some way, and a colored gem at each key's tip. her friends were admiring their keys, pinkie pie's had an electric blue balloon key head, and the key's tip were three metallic balloons, seemingly tied to the gold neck so they wouldn't float away, including an electric blue tip gem. Applejack's key had an orange apple with two green leaves for a head, and the head of and apple tree, with three apples depicted onto it, matching her cutie mark, along with what looked like a picket fence along the side of the tree head, and an orange tip gem. rainbow dash's key was a red lightning bolt head, gold neck, a white cloud, and another lightning bolt, colored with red, blue, and yellow, along with a red tip gem, obviously the coolest. fluttershy's key was a light pink butterfly head, gold neck, and two pink flowers attached to it, with a green tip gem, rarity's key was very pretty, it was a purple diamond gem, and a gold plate with three blue gems attached to the neck, and a matching purple tip gem. twilight was holding her key in her hoof, it was her six-point star cutie mark, magenta element gem, gold neck, and a design that looked somewhat like her element of harmony crown-type, thing, with the small magic gem, and and eight soft, blue gems aligning it, and six white stars resting below it, and a matching magenta tip gem. twilight recognized each key of harmony, except for one key, the gem on the head was something twilight had never seen before, it was an aqua-green gem in the shape of a fiery sun, with a gold neck, and an aqua tip gem, above it, there were golden leaf garlands in a horse-shoe shape, which twilight knew as the symbol for victory, at the center of the golden wreath, was a silver sword and a gold shield, and a small symbol depicted onto the shield, sunset shimmer's cutie mark! "we think these belong to you" tiddlywinks said shyly, twilight couldn't help but smile, "thank you breezies" she thanked, "alright girls" twilight said, now getting to serious matters "we have the keys that go to the chest of harmony, so, we open it" she said as she held up her key with her magic, her friends and her approached the chest, still looking fresh and untouched. Applejack and pinkie pie were the first to insert their keys in their separate locks, the next were rainbow dash and fluttershy, and after them was rarity and twilight. But as rarity clicked her key into place, twilight hesitated, she had a hunch about sunset's key, but she needed to know if she was right. Without another thought, twilight inserted sunset shimmer's key instead of her own into the lock, and with one final turn, a light burst from the top of the chest. six metallic blue plates on the top of the chest, turned and shifted out of the way, to reveal a seventh lock, concealed all this time! "I knew it!" twilight cheered. she lifted her key with her magic, carefully inserting it into the magical lock, for a moment, she had forgotten sunset shimmer being near death, so she stopped herself before turning the key to unlock the chest. "wait!" she said "before i do this, i ask of one favor" she asked the three breezies, they exchanged glances and shrugged, "sure" said tra la la, "we still need the sap of harmony to heal my friend" twilight replied, her tone all the more serious. "well why didn't you say so before!" zipzee burst out of her silence, and buzzed over to the trunk of the magical tree, carefully peeling a piece of the bark down into what looked like a small slide. Tiddlywinks and tra la la held up a glass vial, and the sap fell, drop by drop into the bottle. When the vial was filled to the top, tra la la and tiddlywinks popped a cork into the neck of the bottle, and zipzee sliding the peeled bark back onto the tree, as if it never happened. Zipzee helped her breezie friends set the vial onto the soft earth beside the magic chest. Twilight nodded her thanks to them as she held her key in her magic, with one slight turn, and a faint, click! The lid of the box divided into six separate pieces, slowly lowering so whatever was inside could be seen. It hovered in the air like magic, it was an aqua-green, old-single-cut, magical gem. It was the lost element of harmony! It hovered above the now empty chest, glowing, it might haven't have been touched in more than a thousand years. A loud thump! Broke the stunned silence. Another followed, and soon after, an enormous, smoke-filled opening was at the cavern entrance. Twilight had done research on this cavern in her books, and the entrance can only be seen by those who have truly experienced friendship, and those who haven't, just see a rock wall, which explained why they used freaking dynamite! "Knock knock!" said a diamond dog, "honey I'm home!" said another who was shorter than the last. The larger one smacked him in the back of the head, "mine was better, mutton brain" he snapped. A shadowy figure stood between them, medusa, in her princess Luna disguise, "twilight dearie, i believe that belongs to me" she said with a gentle voice, but twilight knew it was just an act. "Give me the element, and surrender your power to me, and i will heal sunset shimmer and spare your friends" she explained. Twilight would never give her the lost element, but, sunset shimmer was dying, and she didn't even know if the sap would work. flash let go of his sister and pulled a dagger from a strap on her leg, and held it in medusa's direction like it was Excalibur itself, but sunset made him drop it, "no, we're outnumbered" she choked, "sunset's right, live today, fight tomorrow" fluttershy cautioned. The breezies and spike took cover behind the tree of harmony, out of sight from the soldiers. flash glared at medusa, and twilight lowered her head, "if i do this, you promise to heal sunset and let my friends go?" she asked, "of course, cross my heart" medusa grinned in reply, twilight hung her head, she reached out to take the element, but as soon as her violet hoof barely brushed the glowing gem, it glowed even brighter, like a warning beacon, and the lost element of harmony collapsed into shimmering, aqua-green dust. Twilight and the others gasped, but medusa unleashed an evil glare so powerful, it would make even shining armor quiver with fear. She growled with hatred at the alicorn mare, but took a deep breath and said to her soldiers, "take them" with a growl they took twilight and bound her wings and trapped her horn in magic-proof chains. Medusa's face shifted from the peaceful princess Luna, to a horrid snake faced monster. Her hooves guarded with iron armor and lined with golden chains, a necklace that resembled a coiled, gold snake around her neck, her crown was forged like armor, crafted like a snake coiled around her head, and spiraling into two horns atop the gold ring, and between them was a burning red ruby. Her cutie mark was a green, red-eyed snake whose head split into two separate snake heads, her mane divided into six snakes, matching the appearance of her cutie mark, her tail was the same. Her coat a sickly pale green, and her eyes, red as blood, sharp as daggers, her pupils narrowed into vertical slits that looked like horrid sharp, venomous teeth. Her wings were those of an angel, but she herself was the farthest thing from, but her horn was the most frightening, it was as if it was venomous knife attached to her forehead, glowing with her dark green magic. "for children you have caused me a great deal of trouble, kill them all!" medusa commanded, "no!" twilight pleaded as she struggled against the soldiers holding her, she should never have been so foolish, now her friends were going to die, and it was all her fault!


	28. Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27: GIVING UP HOPE

Sunset shimmer hadn't expected the lost element of harmony to dissolve into dust, and now that it had, medusa was furious and now her soldiers had twilight and were going to kill them all! But for some reason, her soldiers stopped, medusa held a vacant expression, like they weren't supposed to see her true emotion broiling inside her black heart. She approached sunset, her shadow looming over her like a storm cloud. "Now, i know we've had our mishaps, and i know i killed your mother and deprived you of your brother..." is there a point to this? Sunset thought. "but can't we let bygones be bygones, we know how this works, if you come with me, I'll let your friends go home, and we can all get this over with" medusa stretched out her hoof, as if to shake hooves to seal the deal, sunset had to use all of her remaining strength to do what she did next. She lashed out her hoof and grabbed medusa's. Medusa writhed from her grip but sunset was too strong, "i don't care about power, i don't care about being royalty, that's not what I want, that's what YOU wanted me to get for you, you knew i had magic and you cursed me to stop me from realizing it! But i will never EVER be like you! And i will never let you use my magic AGAIN!" sunset shimmer through medusa to the floor with her flickering magic, but once she did, she nearly passed out. medusa rose to her hooves, pure hatred and fury burning in her red eyes, she lifted herself in the air, as if to strike an aerial attack, her knife-like horn glowed with the darkest of magic, and though the strike was as quick as a hiccup, the world itself seemed to slow down. Medusa's magic shot like a bullet through the wind, and before anypony could move an inch to do anything, it hit sunset shimmer in the heart. sending darkness all through her body, turning her coat completely red, her back writhed in pain, leathery dragon wings ripping out of her skin, falling limp on her sides, her eyes now the reflection of darkness, dread and pain. She was about to fall to the ground, but medusa slammed her hooves to the dirt, causing the ground itself to open up beneath the once strong mare, swallowing her in the dirt and vines. She hit the floor of the pit with a thud. Dust and dirt staining her face, and reopening the scratch beneath her left eye. her friends above saw her and knew they had lost their friend, she wasn't moving, medusa had gotten what she wanted, twilight had tears streaming down her face. "now you're gonna get it" said rainbow dash, fury and hatred in her eyes, "oh please" sneered medusa "i have an army, and now that i have your precious princess twilight, and the elements of harmony, their spirits will be silenced forever, just like your little friend" her soldiers broke out of their statue-like stillness and cornered the six ponies, only for a second they thought they would end up like sunset, but then their luck was completely turned around. An enormous blue dragon with golden spikes smashed through the ceiling, dust and dirt cloaked over the ponies inside. The soldiers coughed and tried to get their bearings, when medusa caught sight of the six ponies, flying away on a dragon's back. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH" she roared in anger. The five mares were laughing and cheering in their great escape. "Thank you Lionel!" fluttershy praised. But flash was silent, they still had twilight, and his sister was now gone, he said nothing, except for a small murmur towards the sickly mare who killed her, "I'll be seeing you again."

"Luna, I'm sorry, I'm sorry i wasn't there for you for those thousand years, i was so blinded by my faith that you were the content little filly i knew, but you were more than that, and I'm sorry" said the dying celestia. Medusa rolled her eyes, her sister was always the sappy one, and always believing everything would be okay. Celestia sipped her tea, barely able to choke the poison down, "you won't be missed sister, especially not by me, hah!" laughed medusa in her original voice. celestia's eyes widened, she hadn't heard that voice in over a thousand years, and she dreaded the thoughts racing through her mind, "me, medusa?" she coughed, "yes little sister it's me, tell me, did you really think you could imprison me forever?" she asked jeeringly, "i, didn't imprison you, you know that, i did nothing" celestia was barely able to say two or three words at a time! "Exactly! You stood idly by while our parents sent me away for a thousand years!" medusa snapped, "they didn't love me enough to try to help me, they just locked me up" medusa added with anger and a touch of sorrow. "They did love you sister, they loved you so much that imprisoning you killed them" celestia pleaded. Medusa was far from listening. Celestia closed her eyes and her teacup cracked onto the tile floor, medusa turned her back on her sister, it was so silent that all that was heard to the evil princess was her sister's heartbeat. It was faint and quick, the heartbeat of one who was near death. She left her sister in the dark room, medusa had won, and no one was going to stop her.


	29. Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28: THE OCULIST

Lionel had dropped the six ponies off near a town flash now knew as appleloosa. Applejack told him that they may find some help here, he saw that there was a travel cart in the town square. he stepped closer to investigate, it was a cart used for magic tricks, and the mare performing looked so familiar, but didn't look entirely like flash remembered, but then it hit him, the mare had been using her magic to juggle frying pans and one spun out of control and hit him right in the face! "Trixie!" he said, relieved to see a, sort of, familiar face, the mare on stage lifted her wizard's hat off of her head and set it on a table, "do i know you?" she asked, puzzled. Oh yeah, flash thought, everypony here didn't know him, except maybe his pony self, who he still surprisingly hadn't met yet. "Uh, no" he said, a bit embarrassed, "do you request a personal show? Or maybe you would like to see your future, or have your hoof read?" she asked, "or perhaps you are only here to see the great and powerful tri..." "Save it magic pants, we're here to get help" rainbow dash interrupted, Trixie grunted with frustration at the five mares, "well well well, if it isn't the elements of harmony, here to ruin my career again?" she asked, clearly these ponies and Trixie had some bad history. "Trixie, you can tell the future, for real?" flash asked, trying to avoid any further conflict. "yes, but you must first tell me why" she replied, "oh come on!" rainbow complained, "you're just mad at us for taking away your alicorn amulet, and i admit you should hold a grudge for us ruining your career that one time, but move on!" rarity added. "I have! i simply asked why you need to see the future" Trixie repeated, "what's the catch, you aren't going to use it for gambling are you?" she asked, "no" flash continued "we need it because our friend has been captured, and we need to know how to defeat the pony who took her" Trixie didn't look at all interested, "that sounds bad, but what's in it for me?" Trixie asked, flash knew Trixie as someone who didn't help anybody unless she got something good in return, and flash knew how to get her attention, "you know, if you helped save princess twilight, you'd be known as a hero! Ponies from all over would come to see the great and powerful Trixie! The mare who against all odds, beat the evil medusa, rescued the princess and saved the day!" he cheered. This defiantly got Trixie's attention, "do you really think so?" she asked, "yah, it'll be fantastic for your magic business" applejack added. "What's the story you're going for?" Trixie asked cautiously, flash knew she meant, what are you planning to do anyway? "Rescue the damsel in distress, stop the villain, save the world" "very adventurous, come with me" Trixie waved her hoof forward into her cart. Inside looked like a witch's lair, with voodoo, and hoodoo, and bubbling, sparkling, and Smokey potions every which way. in the center of the small room, was a wooden table with seven chairs, six were just plain wood chairs, while the seventh was more like a throne, with shimmery fabrics covering in, and a crystal ball at the table center. Trixie lifted a gold crown band, with dangling beads and jewels onto her head. She was completely silent, though the air in the murky room seemed to grow thicker and heavier, when out of nowhere, the old, used, wax candles scattered throughout the room, lit all by themselves! The lighting candles formed a path that was coming closer to Trixie, her crown band's gems glowed with magic, as blue smoke danced through the air. It gathered into Trixie's eyes, like her very soul was sucking up all the blue smoke like a vacuumed. Once all the magic smoke was, inside Trixie, her eyes flew open, but they weren't her own, they were cloudy with fog, and it looked like a thunder storm forming in her irises. She spoke in a voice that was also not her own, but her voice was still there, like background music, obviously there, just not heard as well. "i am the spirit of oculus, first oracle of equestria, slayer of the mighty hydra, and speaker for the spirits of those who have ruled before us, come forth young heroes, and ask what you may" said Trixie in oculus's voice. Flash spoke first, "what will happen if medusa is not defeated? what will happen to equestria?" oculus blinked, then answered in what sounded like a riddle "a chance for victory will come in a flash, for snake against harmony the two blades will clash, and though our hero sits now in her sleep, once she has risen her golden blade shall reap, only friendship can heal her dark blight, harmony will bring courage a magic pure white, for the power of the blood moon will run out of light, and the kingdom will die in a single day and night" oculus explained. "Well what the hay does that mean!?" applejack demanded. Trixie's eyes had returned to normal and the blue smoke had vanished, "i never quite know what oculus is talking about, but you said medusa, are we talking about the princess medusa, the princess of myth who tried to kill her own sisters to get the kingdom for herself! And it was said that she was the richest royal of them all, oh what i wouldn't give to have just one piece of her treasure!" Trixie fantasized, "you'd probably turn it into a show prop or a show of its own" rarity mumbled, Trixie obviously overhead her "exactly, 'come one, come all to see the lost treasure, of the wicked princess medusa of myth!'" she said proudly. flash had an excellent idea, "if you can decipher the riddle oculus gave us, we would defeat medusa, and get her treasure for you" he said, Trixie hesitated, like she already knew he was trying to bribe her, and she would've said no, but she really wanted that treasure... "Fine, let's see, 'a chance for victory will come in a flash' what's your name again?" Trixie asked, "flash, flash sentry" he replied. Trixie pondered with that for a moment, "i see, the first line of the riddle refers to you! You will have to fight!" Trixie said, "That's ridiculous! I've never fought a day in my life!" flash objected. Trixie shook her head "oculus may be difficult, but she's never wrong, that cutie mark is there for a reason" flash looked at the picture on his flank, a blue shield with a neon yellow lightning bolt across it. He fell silent as Trixie continued, 'snake against harmony' meant medusa against the elements of harmony, 'two blades will clash' means that a battle will play out. 'Our hero sits in sleep' meant they had to wait until she woke up, whomever she even was! 'gold blade shall reap' meant she will have a magic gold blade, Trixie said that there was a metal, celestial gold, said to be used by the legendary knights of the round stable. "Only friendship can heal her dark blight? I don't know what that means" Trixie said. "i know what it means!" pinkie pie continued "like it said in twilight's book, only an act of true friendship with bring light to a dark heart, and sunset shimmer is the only pony we know who had dark magic, she must be the hero oculus was talking about!" she squealed, "and the rest, i can't figure out, i swear oculus is the most difficult pony I've ever met!" Trixie complained. "But she never lies" said fluttershy, quoting what Trixie said earlier. Trixie removed the jeweled crown band from her head and set it back on the wooden table, "so, how will you pay for this?" Trixie asked, the puzzled looks of the ponies was answer enough, "well you didn't think all of this was free, did you?" she cackled. everypony turned to rarity, who always seemed to carry a few extra bits in case of an urgent fashion emergency, "oh all right, here, will these cover it?" said rarity as she held up two ice crystal ear-rings, very fashionable this time of year. Trixie's eyes widened at the gems, "I'll take those please" she whimpered in awe, rarity gave her the jewels and the six ponies exited the travel cart. "No refunds!" Trixie called back to them. "well that was a bust" said rainbow dash, she was about to complain some more when Trixie burst out of her cart again, her eyes cloudy with the spirit of the oracle, "one more thing young heroes!" she added in oculus's voice, "you cannot face this threat alone, in the mist of canterlot castle's highest tower, there is a beacon, get to it, and warn the other kingdoms of the monster you will face, without the kingdoms, united by harmony's will, all creatures will fall, or choose to kill or be killed."


	30. Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29: A BEACON OF HOPE

Spike and the three breezies hid within the twisted roots of the tree of harmony, not moving a muscle, barely breathing, until they were sure medusa and her soldiers were gone. The three fairy ponies fluttered their shimmery butterfly wings over to the whole that sunset shimmer's body now lay in its horrible stillness. Spike couldn't think of anything to say, so he just lowered his head in sorrow, and the breezies sat in silence with him. They sat in their sadness, but then a sound echoed in the cavern. The four looked around, but no one else was with them, and then the sound repeated itself, a groan. The breezies looked into the dark dusty pit, sunset shimmer was stirring, and groaning, she was alive! "Look!" tiddlywinks exclaimed. She, tra la la, and zipzee buzzed down into the whole, while spike made his way down through the vines. "help" sunset whimpered, tra la la brushed the dirt from her face while tiddlywinks folded her limp dragon wings so they wouldn't trip her if she tried to walk, she was shivering so zipzee pulled a leaf over her shoulders like a blanket, though it wasn't very cold. "where'd they go" sunset groaned weakly, "twilight was captured, but your brother and the girls escaped, we need to help" spike pleaded, "i, i can't" sunset gasped in reply, "i can't do anything except get the ones i care about hurt, or worse! I was right to stay in the human world before, i really don't know anything about friendship" sunset laid her head on her hooves in shame. spike patted her head in encouragement, "i disagree, friendship is... not caring what will happen to you as long as your friends are safe, and those who feel the same about you are the best kind of friends, like when you risked your life countless times to protect twilight, and applejack, rarity, you know?" spike explained. this caught sunset a bit by surprise, she didn't think any of those mares thought of her as their friend, sure they chatted at the Snow Ball, but that wasn't the same thing as friendship, was it? "They think of me as, their friend?" she asked, now it was spike's turn to be confused, "wow, you were right, you really don't know anything about friendship" he raised his eyebrow at her. "yah" said zipzee, "i mean, if you were their friend, you'd take the lost element, swoop in and save the day before medusa killed twilight as a symbol of her power, but like you said, you know nothing about friendship" spike saw that she was using reverse phycology on sunset shimmer, and it was working. "What!? Spike, help me up, i need to get back to the castle, i need to get to them" sunset said as she struggled to stand up. "Wait, what? You can't go out there, if medusa even so much as sees you, you're dead" spike pleaded. "I don't care, i need to get to them, and I have to help them" she snapped back at the baby dragon. Spike knew there was no arguing with her, so he helped her to her hooves along with the breezies helping him. Once sunset had gained her balance she began to climb the roots, looking like she was about to throw up, until she reached the surface of the dark whole. now that there was more light, spike saw that she looked worse than before, her mane was black and filled with cut-offs and burrs, her dragon wings were filled with wholes that looked like they hurt a lot, and her coat was blood red. Sunset hobbled over to the tree of harmony, where the dust of the lost element was still resting. With her weak and flickering aqua-green magic, she lifted it into a small ratty pouch and tied it with a leather ribbon. The ribbon extended into a necklace so the pouch hung around sunset shimmer's neck, along with her amulet, which seemed useless now, but she kept it anyway, it felt like she needed it for some unknown reason. But whatever, sunset thought, she stumbled and fell a few times as she tried to walk, but she didn't care if she fell, she needed to get to her friends, without the elements they would die for sure. Sunset shimmer knew that medusa had the elements of harmony with her at the castle, she knew she couldn't just charge in, medusa had most likely prepared for everything. But nothing is hopeless, sunset remembered her sister melody telling her that when she was just a filly. "Come on!" she ordered, spike and the breezies followed her out of the tarnished cavern, helping her up every now and then. breezies can sense changes in nature before they actually happen, and the three of them grew nervous, mist was gathering in the forest, and dark clouds were gathering overhead "you guys, i don't like the look of those storm clouds coming in" zipzee said with worry. The others followed her gaze to the thunder clouds, zapping lighting all over the forest and starting fires. "Then we need to get moving!" sunset shimmer choked out. She broke into a wobbly gallop, running as fast as she could to get back to the palace, before it was too late.

"So, it seems i have every leader in my court, i will spare your kingdoms, if you agree to serve me as your one true queen" medusa repeated for the eighth time. The leaders of the six neighboring regions were all in medusa's presence. king Zeus and queen briar rose of the Smokey mountains, princess cadence and shining armor of the crystal empire, general silver wings of the griffon kingdom, princess petalynn of the changelings, chief thunderhooves of the buffalo, and ambassador amber flowers of saddle Arabia. Medusa had managed to capture them all, she had called them all here on a false distress call, and they were furious with themselves for all getting captures so easily. "You cannot just keep us all here, we have powers you couldn't even begin to imagine!" amber flowers protested. "I remember you from stories i was told as a filly, i saw you in my nightmares, i heard your voice when my foolish mother announced to attack equestria, and she was convinced that celestia was the one who plagued our kind, but it was you! And my people still choose to follow you, it's despicable!" princess petalynn spat. "Your people thought we plagued you?" princess cadence asked, princess petalynn nodded in shame. Her mother, queen chrysalis, was too blinded by hatred and a want for revenge to see what medusa's whispers were doing to her. "enough chatter!" medusa hissed "i have waited for this moment for more than a thousand years, and it's finally mine" lighting and thunder boomed outside, the leaders felt the ground shake beneath them, they even though the stain glass windows would shatter, and that was probably what medusa wanted. each window showed a historic victory for equestria, including twilight and her friends finding the elements of harmony and turning nightmare moon back into princess Luna, them using them to turn discord back to stone, princess cadence and shining armor using the power of love to defeat queen chrysalis, spike using the crystal heart to return peace to the crystal empire, and twilight at her coronation as an alicorn. "Now, you will bow before me, or your kingdoms will be destroyed one at a time!" medusa snapped. The leaders knew that even if they did bow to her, she would destroy their kingdoms anyway, "we will never bow to you! We would rather die!" chief thunderhooves boomed. Medusa was getting tired of so much protesting, this was her destiny, and now these leaders were keeping her from fulfilling it! But she had certain leverage that would make them, not only bow, but worship her as a god. She summoned her guards in, and broke a shard of pictured glass from one of the painted windows. The glass shard depicted twilight as an alicorn, medusa held it up to the leaders with an evil grin. "I think that you'll find it impossible to resist!" she hissed. The glass picture dissolved in her venomous magic, revealing the real princess twilight, being held hostage by the changeling guards. The six leaders gasped in horror. Princess cadence looked like she was on the verge of tears, shining armor glaring with hatred deep into medusa's evil eyes. "so, we have two options, you give up your kingdoms and accept me as your queen and twilee here goes free, or, you can hear princess twilight's cries of agony before your thrown into my dungeon to rot" twilight yanked her left hoof free and and punched the other guard in the face with it, running towards the leaders, "don't listen to..." her sentence was cut short when black, Smokey ropes appeared around her legs and mouth, making her fall to the floor with a thud. Obviously medusa's magic, her head snakes hissed in irritation in twilight's direction as the guards held her by her hooves again, her words muffled by the Smokey clothe covering her mouth. "So? Do we have a deal?" medusa asked with a hiss in her voice, shining armor took a step back. "If you need a minute to discuss it?" she added, shining armor lowered his head "you swear she'll be safe from any harm?" he demanded. "Of course, would i lie?" medusa blinked her eyes innocently. Twilight shook her head vigorously, as if telling her older brother to do the right thing, don't say yes, don't listen to her, if you do she'll just kill me anyway. Shining armor was sweating, he didn't know what to do, listen to medusa, give her power over the land and save his little sister, or let his sister die, and watch the world die with her.

Rainbow dash, rarity, applejack, fluttershy, pinkie pie, and flash were hiding in the royal castle garden. Medusa's guards were everywhere, patrolling for trespassers, or more specifically, the six ponies who were hiding right under their noses. "okay, just tell me how we're going to get past those guards, into the castle, up to the highest tower, and light the distress beacon without being seen!?" rainbow dash demanded. Flash didn't hear her, he was deep in thought. He knew they couldn't just dive right in head first and get everyone shot in the face! They needed a plan, a strategy. The thought of strategies made him sad, sunset shimmer always led her team to victory at the canterlot high school games, including capture the flag, polo, and an insane obstacle course. Her nickname back at school was Perseus, because she was amazing at battle strategy, she was like a high school war hero. Even though she was a jerk most of junior year, she seemed to completely turn herself around after the fall formal incident. he remembered crystal clear, the day she was placed on his team for dodge ball in gym class, she suggested that they take out their best players, then weak, then best, like a zig-zag pattern so the opposite team wouldn't be able to mimic it. It was actually pretty brilliant. Now she was gone, which made his hate towards medusa grow stronger every minute. Not compared to rarity, who was practically steaming. She was covered in dirt and mud, her mane ratty and dotted with burrs. There was even a squashed bug behind her ear. "Rarity, you got something there" flash pointed out, she grinded her teeth in rage, "leave it, it fuels my hate fire" she snapped. This made rainbow dash snicker, but her expression shifted back to serious fairly quickly. "okay, rarity, you and applejack need to create a diversion, fluttershy and pinkie pie will stay here to gather as many animals as you can to keep the guards away from the garden. Rainbow dash and i will get to the beacon and light it, everypony clear?" he explained. "Crystal, but what about sumac?" rainbow dash asked "and all of the new guards?" fluttershy added. "medusa may have the elements of harmony, but we have something she doesn't, the magic of friendship" flash never thought he would say that, "i might not have been here very long, but i feel like I've lived here my whole life, though i prefer to hang out with guys, you guys are just as tough, and just as strong, and just as awesome" that got them going, they smiled at him and pinkie pie even gave him a hug. "Let's get in there and kick some changeling butt!" rainbow dash cheered. "Okay, let me think, a diversion, applejack, how's your acting?" rarity asked. Applejack raised her eyebrow in suspicion, she didn't know what rarity was planning, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like it.

"Somepony! Anypony! Help!" called an agonizing voice. The guards on duty dropped what they were doing to run to the aid of a damsel in distress. When they turned the corner of the wall, two beautiful mares were being attacked by an enormous grizzly bear. One mare had a snow white coat with a curled purple mane, with a blue gem hair clip pinning back her curls. The other had an orange coat and a sun gold mane twisted into a braid down her back. The bear roared in anger, the guards took their spears and drove the bear into the distance. When rarity and applejack were sure they were gone, rarity's horn lit up in a pattern that was supposed to be Morse code. but in the garden, flash and rainbow dash made out "the goose is gum" but they knew rarity meant "the guards are gone." they sprinted to the servants entrance in the back, making their way through the castle halls, jumping into hiding whenever a guard came by. Rainbow dash was flying through the halls, while whenever flash even moved his bad wing, he had to use all of his manliness not to whimper in pain. They were nearing the stairwell to the tower, when a voice startled him. It sounded like medusa, it came from the throne room, which was close by. Without rainbow dash noticing, he snuck back to the throne room doors and peeked inside. Medusa was standing near six creatures, including four ponies, a buffalo, a griffon, a changeling with an astonishingly white coat, and an Arabian mare. It seemed like medusa was interrogating them, flash listened closer. "Time is running out your leader-ships, soon the blood moon will arrive, and i will regain my full power, and there's nothing you can do about it!" she cackled evilly. "We'll just see about that" flash whispered. He turned away from the throne room and galloped to catch up with rainbow dash. She was waiting at the top of the stairwell, "where'd you go, i was worried you got caught!" she snapped, "sorry, now where's that beacon" he replied, changing the subject. Rainbow dash pointed to a giant goblet, filled with some type of slippery stuff, and a torch attached to the wall nearby. Rainbow dash sniffed the liquid in the goblet, "wail oil that stuff burns like a super-nova" she acknowledged. Flash took the torch in his mouth and passed it to rainbow dash, she was able to fly up a light the oil. She was right about it burning like a super-nova, it exploded in white, hot light. Flash felt his eyes burning before he covered them up. Flash high-hoofed rainbow dash and they cheered in triumph. But then a muffled demand for help made them break out of their victory. Rainbow scanned the area, then she saw him, a stallion about their age was tied up and gagged at the edge of the room. Rainbow dash recognized him as prince blueblood. She and flash quickly untied him, "thanks" he said. "Don't worry about it" flash replied. He helped blueblood onto his hooves, then started to look for a way out of here. He sure couldn't fly, and rainbow dash couldn't get away in time with her carrying two ponies. Then his eyes fell on a rope. It was tied to the roof of the tower, and led down to the ground. Flash thought it must have been used to hold the building up, it was pretty old. Rainbow dash followed his gaze and gave him a look that said "are you crazy!?" "I'll bet we can make that" said blueblood, he must have seen the rope too. rainbow dash grunted doubtfully, "twenty bits, says you don't." and with those final words, blueblood grabbed flash and jumped right out of the tower, sliding down the rope like a speeding bullet. "You're on!" he said in an echo. Flash's eyes widened with surprise, he hadn't ever thought a prince would do something like that! the ride was over shortly after it began, and before he knew it, flash and blueblood had landed in a formidable sized bush to hide in, rainbow dash joining them. "You lose" blueblood smirked, rainbow dash grunted, clearly irritated she lost such a ridiculous bet. She coughed up the twenty bits and blueblood shoved them in his pocket. After they lit the beacon, medusa and her wing-ponies had seen the firelight. "The prisoner" she hissed at her guards to find whoever lit the beacon. When they returned to her with the news that prince blueblood was gone, and the beacon was lit, with no chance of putting it out anytime soon, medusa was furious. She thundered angry shouts at her lieutenant, a young mare named ivy. "i have exactly twelve hours, to get the power from the elements of harmony, and to track down those... bozos, before my plan that i have been planning for more than a thousand years, goes up in flame, and your telling me that they were here and you didn't CATCH THEM!" she thundered. "Um, yes" ivy whimpered. "RRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH" medusa roared in rage. She quickly got hold of herself, "that's it, I've had enough of those foals getting in my way, and I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place" she said to herself. Her horn glowed with the darkest of magic's, storm clouds, and snow, and rain, and sleet were released from the sky in a horrible storm. Blowing away trees and even a few houses. Medusa was going to put those ponies in her worst storm yet, and they weren't coming back out.


	31. Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30: HEART OF THE STORM

The rain stung as it slapped into sunset shimmer's face. She had been running and was sure she was close to the castle when this freak storm came out of nowhere! She had been stumbling around choking on the water blind. She called out "rainbow dash, rarity, anyone!" she cried for help, but she couldn't see anything. Flash had stayed behind at the castle, he wouldn't admit it, but he wanted revenge on medusa for hurting his sister. For all he knew she was only barely alive when they left, she was probably dead now, because in this storm, anything could come out of nowhere. The storm was getting worse, and blueblood and the others were caught in the middle of it. Meanwhile, twilight only listened to the storm from her prison cell. Outside, she heard the thunder, saw the lightning, and felt her heart beat out of her chest. I need to get out of here, she thought. she had to find sunset shimmer, had to see if she was truly dead, she couldn't be, she was too strong to die that easily. Her hamster Hercules had been thrown in the dungeon for attacking a guard, he rested on twilight's head as the mare cried into her hooves. Ivy the changeling was on duty for watching the princess so she wouldn't escape. But seeing the mare like this broke her heart. She never wanted to hurt anypony. When general sumac found her and told her that if she joined them, her kind would live in peace, that their plague would be lifted. But so far, none of his promise had been kept, sure it was cool to be his lieutenant, but medusa treated her solders like she did everypony. Cold and with no mercy, but I'm not like that, ivy thought. She hated calling herself ivy, it wasn't even her real name, her real name was wisteria, her sisters had been named after poisonous plants or animals, but her parents named her for her gentle eyes and sense of wonder. But sumac had said that name showed weakness, so he changed it to ivy, itchy and mischievous, the complete opposite of wisteria's real personality. Princess twilight's cry's almost brought tears to her own eyes. That's it, wisteria thought, i won't stand by while this much pain is being caused. Without another hesitation, her plan was perfect. "What!" she called randomly. Twilight hadn't heard anything. "Oh, you want me in the armory!?" wisteria called. She wiggled the key ring loose from her belt and watched in silent pride as it dropped to the floor. "Alright I'm coming, don't have a cow!" she shouted. Wisteria trotted out of the dungeon, looking back once more to see if princess twilight saw her keys drop. Twilight stared at them like they were some magic beans to grow her a beanstalk to freedom. She silently reached for them and hid them behind her back. With a smile of pride, wisteria trotted up and out of the dungeon, so the princess could escape.

Twilight turned the key into place and the lock clicked open. She turned the door ever so quietly, with only the slightest creak of metal gears. Hercules bounded to the stairwell, sniffing out any hold ups. He gave twilight a look that said, "The coast is clear" and twilight got the message and trotted up the stone steps, the hamster saddled in her mane. Twilight took a dark cloak from a coat-rack and pulled it over her head to avoid any attention. "Alright Hercules, we're getting out of here" she said with a twinge of fear. The storm was getting worse, and the rain pelted against the windows like rocks, forming cracks in the glass. "Find the princess! If she isn't found in two minutes, you will be served on a silver platter and devoured by the queen!" shouted a changeling general. Oh no! Twilight thought, the jig was up! She was going to get caught, and that would be the end of her! She was about of cower and run back down to the dungeon, when a bolt of lightning shot through the wind. Hitting the castle and smashing an enormous whole in the wall, leading to the outside. Rain and snow flooded the exposed room, soaking twilight's cloak and making her teeth chatter. Wait, this is my way out! Twilight thought. The sound of thundering hooves, snapped her out of her thoughts, she looked into the rain. She could barely see anything through the pelting droplets, the only light was the occasional lightning bolt that shot out of nowhere like a bullet. twilight galloped with all of her energy out of the castle and into the storm, which was probably the stupidest thing she had ever done, but she had to find her friends, had to warn them of medusa's plans. The lightning shot from the sky, providing enough light for twilight to make out where she was, she was near the historic battlefield of the war against discord a thousand years ago. The field was over five-hundred feet wide, and twice that number long. Anypony could go mad trying to find their way out of this storm if they were stuck on that field. Though it wasn't much of a field anymore, it was frozen over with snow, and the rain had drowned any plant life down there. But it was the fastest way to ponyville.

Medusa was deep in the caverns beneath canterlot castle, with ivy, one of her top lieutenants. Ivy was mixing together some rock formations in a boiling crater found in the ancient caverns. What her sisters and parents never knew was, that these caves were once home a very dark coven of witches, and most of their black magic books and dark spells still remained after they all died out. "There is dark magic here" medusa hissed. Ivy sprinkled some black crystal dust into the boiling ooze. Medusa opened a tattered and rotting book with her black magic, flipping through different incantations and voodoo rituals until she found the one she wanted. It depicted a pony standing at the foot of a stone dragon, almost the size of the castle itself! The instructions were written along the borders of the page, "this will be a fitting way to bid the elements of harmony, goodbye" she hissed. Medusa had a plan, she controlled when the portal to the next world would open, and she had a plan to rule as queen in this world, and the next.

Sunset shimmer stumbled and wobbled through the storm weakly. The rain soaked through her coat and tore her mane from its braid and her hair blew like black waves around her face and through the wind. "Applejack! Fluttershy! Anypony, help!" she called. Spike and the breezies had followed her into the storm, and they were struggling just as much as she was. Tra la la's wing collapsed and she blew out of control, zipzee and tiddlywinks tried to help, but the winds were too strong. The breezies were blown out of sight. "Tra la la, tiddlywinks, zipzee!" spike called. He ran into the rain to find them, unknowingly leaving sunset alone. She had no idea where she even was, her only light to see was the lightning that struck down every now and then. On the other side of the field, prince blueblood was wandering through the blinding storm to try to find someone. "Hello! Anypony there!" he called into the blackness.

Flash had been waiting at zecora's hut, and when twilight and the others hadn't returned, he grew worried and went out to look for them. He just hadn't expected this storm to come out of nowhere! He was trying to find somepony to explain what was going on, when he heard a voice through the storm, "anypony, help!" the voice called. Flash couldn't see a thing, but it seemed like the voice was close, so he dragged himself into the direction it came from. He couldn't explain it, but he had a very strong instinct to find whomever called to him, he knew it was important.

Medusa had sent her generals into the storm to track down princess twilight and prince blueblood, if they were loose, her plans would be ruined! Twilight was stumbling through the darkness and the rain, trying to get farther from the storm, but it seemed to follow her wherever she walked. "Oh twilight!" called the voice of shining armor, twilight knew it was a trick. Shining armor always called her twilee, and he never talked in a high pitched call like that! "Twilight! Come back to the castle, medusa can't be defeated! You can't win!" he yelled through the roaring winds. Twilight ignored him and ran deeper into the storm. The imposter's voice not far behind her.

"Somepony! Anypony! Help!" sunset pleaded into nothing. In all her life she had never felt so alone, no one to take her hoof, no one around to help her, and a few weeks ago she might have said she didn't want anypony's help, but now she needed it more than ever. The wind tore at her body, dragging her this way, and then another way. But she kept her eyes forward. Her hooves began to feel heavy and she could barely move them. She gazed through the rain onto her now red hooves. A black ooze was veining through her skin, spreading more darkness through her body like tree roots. She had to hurry, time was running out for her. She forced herself to take those steps forward, often tripping, but determined to find her friends. She couldn't give up on them, she refused to leave them behind. Never again, she thought.

"Anypony there!" blueblood called. The storm had spread darkness across the city of canterlot, and he could barely see his hooves on the ground, the winds howling in his ears so he couldn't hear well either. But then a voice made its way to him. It was weak, maybe dying, and astonishingly familiar. "Help" the voice had said. Blueblood would recognize that voice anywhere, it was the pony who had impersonated princess twilight! The pony he fell in love with. His direction changed in an instant, he tried to follow the voice of the mare. All of his advisors would have said, "Let her go!" "Is she worth your life?" "You don't even know her name!" and blueblood didn't care about his life, or her name, one thing was for certain. He loved her, and he wasn't going to let her get hurt when he can stop it.

"Twilight, why are you fighting this!?" shining armor called. "You can't run anymore!" twilight tried to shut his voice out, which wasn't hard considering the strong winds tearing through her ears. "Twilight! Why bother looking?" he called. this got twilight's attention, she was going to stand up for sunset because she was twilight's friend, but shining armor cut off what she was going to say. "Twilight! When sunset returned she was near death, because there was darkness in her heart! And when medusa struck her, the darkness began to destroy her even more" twilight couldn't bear to hear any of this, but she forced herself to listen anyway. "No one has ever survived medusa's curse! And you know what? She would still be alive and well, if you hadn't brought her here!" shining armor accused. Twilight couldn't believe it, the fact that he said it, or the fact that he was right. Sunset shimmer was fine in the human world, with friends, a home, and a pet. And twilight brought her back here, and look what happened. "Sunset shimmer is dying, maybe dead! And it's because of you!" shining armor said finally. Twilight felt her eyes open up, and she let the tears fall. Her tears, filled with pain and sorrow and regret fell to the icy ground. But one tear, filled with the feelings of memories, of every time twilight and sunset met. the night of her first princess summit, those days at canterlot high, fall formal, the winter's snow ball, and that moment that would haunt twilight forever, when she had lost all hope at the tree of harmony. Her brother opened his arms. And the look in his eyes weren't evil or bitter. They were caring and understanding. The shining armor that twilight knew and loved. She ran into his arms, sobbing for the loss of one of her best friends. The memory tear fell in an instant. Hitting the ground, and the salty droplet was filled with so much magic, that once it splashed open on the ground. It broke free a most powerful magic, spreading across the field and breaking the storm apart. But it would only last a few minutes.

Sunset shimmer had seen the storm evaporate as soon as it had come. She stood, silent, near death. Her hooves as heavy as stones, and the dark veins spreading to her face. The darkness that medusa hit her with, was coursing with the sorceress's venom. So once her magic was completed, sunset would turn to stone. The fog of the after-storm parted. And then she saw them, on two different parts of the field. Her brother flash, and prince blueblood! Sunset didn't think she was anything special, but blueblood had come for her, and that was proven when his gaze fell upon her. He smiled with love at first, but then sprinted towards her, a determined look in his eye to reach her. Her brother had seen her as well and was galloping with blueblood to reach her. But then a sound touched her ears. It was sobbing, but where was it coming from? Sunset turned her head the slightest bit, then more of the fog had cleared. Revealing twilight, and her brother shining armor. He was hugging her, comforting her while she sobbed. But then everything changed in an instant. His eyes were no longer caring, but burning with hatred. He raised a fanged dagger with his dark magic, he was going to kill his own sister! But then sunset realized that it wasn't the real shining armor. She looked back at blueblood and flash, but turned away. She didn't care if she was never healed by an act of true friendship or whatever. She would die to save her friend. Shining armor had the dagger in a position that would kill twilight for sure. But before anything else happened, sunset shimmer pushed twilight out of the way, she hit the ground with a thud. Shining armor was going to stab sunset instead, but her body was veined with blackness, the dark veins spreading through her body, turning her into a stone statue. The look of determination still frozen on her face. Her necklace glowed with golden light, slashing through the imposter like a sword, turning him to nothing but a pile of ash. Twilight had been covering her eyes from the light, but she looked at the statue in horror. "Oh no, no please, not her" twilight broke down in sobs. Muttering her friend's name over and over. "What have i done? This is all my fault." Hercules climbed out of twilight's mane and nuzzled sunset's stone cheek. But she didn't respond like she always did, he lowered his head in sorrow. Blueblood looked into the statue's eyes, he fell in love with this mare, and he was face to face with her, and he couldn't even ask her name. He touched his horn to her own, with flash at her side, he barely knew her, but he knew he cared about her, and twilight at her hooves, sobbing. Spike and the breezies found their way to where twilight and the others were. They gazed at sunset shimmer's stone form and it made them lower their heads too. With the three ponies she cared about most surrounding her, a spark ignited inside her, that with combined with twilight, a friend, flash, a brother, and blueblood, one who had touched her heart, united together. Them to her united all three powerful magic's, friendship, family, and love, and combined with the act of true friendship. Inside the castle of canterlot, the elements of harmony were imprisoned in glass cages. But their magic, united with the seventh element, was powerful enough to break free from their prison, creating a light so bright it was visible from the field. Twilight looked at the stone pouch around sunset shimmer's neck, it cracked and crumbled until the aqua-green, shimmery dust of the seventh element of harmony flowed through the gentle winds. Revolving around the statue in a magical bond. Not noticing until she noticed, twilight touched her empty crown, which still rested on her head. The elements broke out, speeding in different directions, being drawn to their bearers. Before twilight knew it, the element of magic, in its shape that matched her cutie mark, was again in her golden crown. And the shimmery dust had been spinning faster and faster, glowing brighter and brighter...

"Hello! Where am i!?" sunset shimmer called. "My child, you've finally done it!" exclaimed star catcher as she approached her daughter. "Mom! I don't get it, where am i? What happened?" she asked. "you have done something that has never before this day, been done before, something that even the great magic of the royal pony sisters, could not fulfill, because they had not the power of all seven elements of harmony, and because of you, the seven can be reunited once more! but be not afraid, your courage has been proven again and again, but i fear the worse is still yet to come, but this is, and had always been, your destiny..." star catcher's voice faded into a faint whisper as the scenery changed in an instant.

Sunset shimmer's eyes burst open, they were glowing brighter then the brightest stars in the sky. The shimmery dust had stopped spinning and had flew towards sunset's neck, forming a gold necklace with an aqua-green sun-shaped gem in the center. As the necklace glowed with magic, sunset felt the stone that had formed over her body, crackle and shatter like mere glass. Her true self had been restored! Her coat orange again, her mane returned to its fiery colors, and her dragon wings gone! She stopped glowing and floated to the ground, her eyes closed from exhaustion. The three ponies had gathered by her side. When her eyes flickered open, twilight practically crushed her with the bear hug. Sunset smiled and hugged her back. Twilight was sobbing again, but this time with joy. "i can't believe it you almost died, for me?" twilight asked, sunset shimmer wouldn't never said it if it wasn't one-hundred percent true, "you're my friend." spike gasped "an act of true friendship will bring light to a dark heart!" he cheered as he shook flash's leg excitedly. At that moment, rainbow dash and fluttershy fluttered up to them. "We saw the light, what happened?!" rainbow demanded. Everyone turned to look at sunset shimmer's necklace. "Wow, it's just like your cutie mark!" fluttershy exclaimed, rainbow dash scooted everypony but sunset, into a group huddle. "So, why did this happen?" she asked, like more of an order than a question. "Rainbow dash, she's wearing the lost element," twilight continued "and i think that if she's wearing it, then..." "Wait, you mean..." "Yes, she's most likely a spirit of an element of harmony" twilight explained. Rainbow dash looked back at sunset shimmer for a moment, then added, "Yah, but the spirit of what element?"


	32. Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31: BACK TO SCHOOL

Medusa had not witnessed sunset shimmer returning to her true form, she was still in the canterlot caverns with ivy. Ivy was still throwing in ingredients to make what medusa wanted, though she had no idea what it was. Medusa was carefully reading the ancient magic books, left here by the witches of ancient equestria, "let's see, no, defiantly not, ah, perfect" she hissed as she read the final touch to the potion. The book depicted three drops of blood falling into the potion, and it had to be the blood of the enemy. Medusa's mouth curved into a sly grin towards ivy. "I think it needs more... body" she hissed as she pushed ivy into the boiling liquid, who died instantly as the waters consumed her. Once the potion was completed, the liquid rose up into the air, swirling around medusa, turning her into a sickly green mist. She laughed manically as her misty-self floated throughout the castle halls. She grinned with mad excitement as she found what she was looking for. It was a stone dragon, as big as the castle itself, with twelve heads, each one more venomous than the last. Medusa's mist gathered into its stone eyes, making the dragon's eyes glow with evil light. All of a sudden, he moved, he broke out of his stillness with medusa possessing him, commanding him to do what she ordered. "Do, as i command!" medusa hissed with laughter. The dragon's stone body shifted from grey rock, to burning green scales, and black spikes, eyes red as blood, the living image of evil itself.

"okay, so sunset shimmer just broke out of a stone prison, and is now wearing and is the living spirit of an element of harmony, what do we do about that?" rainbow dash asked. "Rainbow dash i don't think we need to DO anything, we just need to find out what the seventh element is" twilight replied. "Well how long is that gonna' take!?" rainbow complained. While they were concealed in their whispers, sunset shimmer wasn't listening to them. Her eyes were focused on the storm clouds above them that were gathering once more. She shook the water from her hooves in irritancy, wait! Water? They were standing in the middle of a field, there wasn't water for miles! The cool pools of glimmering water were scattered throughout the frozen landscape, and spreading. Hercules followed sunset's gaze from one pool to the next, each one glittering with magic. Sunset swore she was seeing things, but the water was getting, deeper! Twilight, rainbow dash, and fluttershy had noticed too and were trying to make some sense of it. But it made NO sense what-so-ever. The magical waters rose around the ponies, swallowing their hooves and drowning their waists. "What's going on? I can't move!" rainbow dash cried. She couldn't move her wings to fly away, as if the water was holding them down. It flooded the empty field and now the six ponies were up to their necks in water! The water rose until it swallowed the heads of the four mares, but for some reason, sweeping the two stallions out of the way. Keeping their heads above the magical water. Sunset shimmer kicked her legs and tried to swim up, but the water just sucked her back down again. Her eyes were squeezed shut, though they didn't sting from being underwater. Though it was the middle of winter, the water was warmed with white magic.

Sunset shimmer forced her eyes open, the magic glimmer had faded from the water, and a cold sensation spread through sunset's body, so cold it almost burned. But she forced herself to swim up. She tried paddling, but that got her nowhere, so she flapped her arms like an underwater bird, and swam up. Her head burst out of the icy water, gasping for air. She blinked her eyes to try to see what happened, where all that water had come from. Except, everything was different. She wasn't on a field anymore, she was, in a lake! Her head whipped in different directions to try to find some proof that she was wrong. But there it was, canterlot high school. By some, crazy means, that magic water had transported them back into the human world. Sunset shimmer looked at her shivering hands. She breathed out frosty breath, visible in the cold. She needed to get out of the water or she'd freeze to death. Another head surfaced the lake, she had purple curls and white skin, a jeweled hair-pin struggling to stay in her purple locks. "Rarity?" sunset coughed. Rarity's eyes widened in astonishment at sunset shimmer's face, she looked at her own hands and nearly screamed. Rainbow dash, applejack, fluttershy, and pinkie pie all splashed and splashed through the icy waves to try to decide whether this place was dangerous or not. "Get out of the water!" rainbow ordered. The six girls began to swim to the frozen shore of the lake. And by some miracle, a head of spikey blue hair surfaced the water next. It was flash! But how did he get here? She recognized him as human-world flash because of the canyon dirt still staining his face. But soon after, the icy lake washed it away. He coughed up some water and then swam to the shore. His biker's jacket being lined with frost. Once everybody was out of the freezing water, another magic took place. Sunset shimmer looked down at her black and magenta biker boots, which should have been soaking wet, but they were completely dry! They all were. Apparently some magical force wanted them to stay alive. "Where's twilight?" flash asked. The six girls scanned the shore for twilight, but she was nowhere to be seen. Rainbow dash, whose wings had regained their mobility, flew above the lake to get a better look of the location. Sunset squinted her eyes at the deep lake. Small bubbles were coming up every few seconds. "She's still down there!" sunset shimmer croaked. Flash's eyes widened, "twilight!" he called as he dove back into the icy water. He swam deeper until he saw her. Her alicorn wings weren't moving, and she was struggling to swim up. Her wings must be weighing her down, flash thought. He swam to her and grabbed her arm, and the two of them swam up. Their heads splashed out of the water, twilight gasping for air. Rainbow dash and sunset shimmer pulled them both out of the water, and their clothes were instantly dried. "My wings were too, heavy!" twilight coughed up. She must have been right, her violet wings were bruised and scraped. Flash helped her to her feet, their eyes met, but twilight looked away. Sunset was a bit disappointed, she thought they both really liked each other, so why weren't they doing anything about it? "Are you okay?" flash asked, changing the subject. "Yah," twilight added "how's your wing?" twilight replied. Flash's wing was still wrapped in medical leaves, and, he had wings! Flash winced as he remembered the pain, "still hurts, a lot" he chuckled like it was some kind of joke they had heard a million times. Twilight gazed at the school, "oh great, we're back" she said with worry. Sunset shimmer touched the element of harmony still around her neck, it sparkled though there wasn't much light. What was going on? She thought, first a mysterious lost element of harmony appears around her neck, then a magical flood teleports them to the human world, and no one was around. Seriously, the school was deserted! No bikes in the rack, no cars in the lot, not even lights on inside. Sure it was the middle of the night, but vice Principal Luna always stayed late. It made no sense that nobody was there. "Weird, not even crickets" said flash as he walked up beside her. "We should check it out" she replied. rarity laughed, "funny, usually when you're in a strange place with no one around and a psychotic queen after you, you don't check out the perimeter" she chuckled nervously. sunset shimmer continued, "relax, me, flash, and twilight will go into the school and look for somebody, you, applejack, and rainbow dash will search the outside of the school, pinkie pie, fluttershy and spike will stay here in case something else happens" sunset shimmer told rarity. Everyone nodded in agreement, and spike puffed up to try to look bigger, which almost made sunset laugh, but she just gave a small smile. Oddly enough, everybody had their cell-phones in their pockets. Sunset shimmer scrolled through her contact-list to check and see if she had each of their numbers to call if there's an emergency. twilight was examining the phone like it was a science experiment, rarity was looking at it like it was a mirror (it wasn't even turned on,) and pinkie pie was playing some game on her phone called "dig-it." "okay, everybody ready?" asked twilight once she got the hang of dialing on her phone, "I'm as ready as an apple during buckin' season" said applejack. "Alright," twilight gulped, "let's go" she sounded as scared as everyone felt. No matter how secure the school was during the day, it could get very creepy at night. Sunset shimmer picked the lock with a hair pin that rarity loaned to her, and the metal doors to the school opened like they were never locked. They were using their phones as a light source, since sunset shimmer, twilight, and rarity were stuck without horns for a while. "I can't believe we're breaking into a school!" rainbow dash whispered, "Who does that? Nobody does that, idiots do that!" sunset shimmer ignored her, she and flash led them to a janitor's closet, where they loaded up on flash-lights, hammers, and surprisingly, pepper-spray! This was where they split up, rainbow dash, rarity, and applejack went down the hallway that went as far as the library, spike, fluttershy, pinkie pie, and spike went through the south wing that led to the gymnasium. And the creepiest destination of all for twilight, flash, and sunset shimmer, the north wing. It led to a stairwell that went down to the basement. The air-conditioning system down there was busted, so it was always freezing down there! And if any changelings were in the basement, sunset certainly hoped the sledge-hammer she was holding would keep it from eating them alive. The three of them stopped at flash's locker, he said he needed to get something they could use. He pulled out his polished electric guitar, "i don't see why you need that" sunset asked. "I could use it for a weapon" flash explained. Sunset shimmer rolled her eyes, "yah, you could knock out some changelings by shredding your electric, maybe hit him upside the head with an A-minor, hmm?" She asked sarcastically. Flash glared at her, "it's heavy, and it can do some damage if played the right way" he ensured, "just trust me" sunset's gaze softened. She wasn't sure of a lot of things, like the element of harmony around her neck, or if she'd walk away from this alive, or at all! But she was absolutely sure that she trusted flash, he was more than just her brother, and he had become her best friend. Sunset shimmer switched on her flash-light, shinning it around the hall-way. The walls were lined with roots and vines, poisonous leaves growing over rows of lockers. "What the heck happened to this place?" flash asked. "Well it wasn't the garden club" sunset shimmer replied. The three of them proceeded through the hallway, twilight practically squeezing the circulation from flash's hand. It hurt, but he kind of liked the fact that twilight was holding his hand for comfort. They walked quietly until a faint drumming sound made them stop. "What's that?" twilight whispered. "I don't know, come on, let's check it out" sunset shimmer replied. The sound was coming from the basement, so the three of them made their way down the stairs and behind a few trash bins to see where or who the sound was coming from. It was coming from dozens of changelings, they were all standing in a circle formation in the basement. Although, most of it was blown open like a giant cave, black crystals hanging from the ceiling. Each changeling was holding a staff with a knife duct-taped to the top end, like a kitchen made spear. They were all stamping their spears on the ground in perfect unison, while a cloaked man was standing in the center with some sort of pedestal. He was chanting some sort of ancient language, like he was reading something. "Looks like some kind of... ritual?" twilight observed. "Yah but a ritual for what?" sunset shimmer asked in reply. As the cloaked man read, a black smoke oozed from the hanging crystals. It floated down to them and started the swirl into a shape. The shape of a dragon with red eyes.

Pinkie pie, fluttershy, and spike had made their way to the gymnasium, and were shining their flash-lights around the room. "Ooh!" pinkie pie squealed in delight as she hopped up to the stage, where a DJ stereo and speakers were set up. Pinkie pie slipped on a pair of head-phones and switched on the stereo. It was a song that pinkie was crazy for! It was a track labeled "light up the night" pinkie spun the record around while she sang along to the song. She didn't sing the actual words, but just made most of them up as she went along. Fluttershy and spike smiled and joined her on the stage. "My name is pinkie pie! And my good friend fluttershy! We're trying to find some humans to speak, so we can get home, it's been a crazy week!" she rapped. Fluttershy laughed as spike attempted to do the robot. "My name is spike the dragon, i don't know why my tail's been waggin', i admit being' a dog is pretty cool, but it's kinda creepy up in this high school!" pinkie pie laughed at spike rapping. He was pretty good! They weren't aware of how loud the speakers were blaring the music. Down in the basement, twilight, flash, and sunset shimmer heard the sound of music coming from above them. The changelings stopped chanting, and the cloaked man in the center stopped reading, and the black ooze stopped swirling, trapped in mid-manifestation, the black mist whispered, "go! Find whoever interrupts my destiny!" it ordered in a sinister female voice. "Where is that coming from?" twilight demanded, "sounds like it's coming from the gym" flash replied. Sunset slapped her forehead, "oh no, pinkie!" she scolded. The soldiers marched up out of the basement, the three teens following close behind. They snuck back down the halls, until sunset shimmer made them stop. "What is it?" flash asked. Sunset shimmer was thinking, "Okay, there are probably at least a dozen of those soldiers right? And what are we? Eight teenagers and a dog, we can't take them on hand-to-hand without proper defense" she explained. They pondered that for a moment, then twilight replied, "Well what do we defend ourselves with? We haven't the slightest idea where we can even find weapons." sunset shimmer tapped her chin as she thought, "i think i know where we can get some" she said with a devilish grin that kind of scared them. They followed sunset to a dark, dusty room. She flipped the light-switch, and what was inside the room never ceased to take her breath away. The room originally was reserved for the marshal-arts team, they fought in many different styles regarding several different cultures. Greek, Egyptian, Chinese, and English. Sunset was the captain of the team. The walls were lined with daggers, and knife-sets, and Sai swords, (say that ten times fast.) the room was even equipped with ribbons attached to wooden handles that if used with experience, could be a deadly weapon. "Alright, let's suit up!" sunset shimmer exclaimed. She, twilight and flash grabbed different weapons from the various walls and racks to get started.

Rainbow dash, applejack, and rarity were rummaging through the school library, flipping through books and scanning the walls for a trap door or something. Rainbow dash was hovering in front of one of the high shelves, flipping through an old history book, which wouldn't help them much. Unless George Washington or Pocahontas could supply a way to defeat medusa. "Hey, what's sakagwa?" rainbow dash asked. "What kind'a gibberish is that?" applejack asked in reply. Rainbow dash handed her the book and pointed to the word. "It doesn't say "sakagwa," it says "Sacagawea." applejack explained, "says here she was a Native American woman who led two guys without a lick of direction, through the forest to their destination" she read aloud. "You two shouldn't be reading history books, we're supposed to be looking for any information on medusa" rarity reminded them. "yah right!" rainbow complained, "if there wasn't any info on her in equestria, what makes you think there's any here!?" applejack kept rummaging through the books, when she grabbed one labeled "Greek myths and monsters" and tried to take it off the shelf, but it wouldn't budge. "I mean it's not like the answer is gonna appear like magic!" rainbow doubted. Applejack saw the book lean forward slowly, like a mechanic switch. The wall that held the bookcase then turned around! It stopped half-way, revealing a secret staircase! It led down into a dark room, the whole way was filled with cobwebs and spiders. Rainbow dash and rarity exchanged glances with applejack. "Should we go see what's down there?" applejack asked, "It would be dumb to have come this far for nothing" replied rainbow dash. All three of them swallowed their fear and stepped carefully down the stone steps. They were covered in spiders, which made rarity more jumpy then rainbow dash or applejack. But thanks to their flashlights there wasn't much of a reason to be jumping out of your skin. At the bottom of the stone stair-well, was a dusty and dreary old room. There were bookcases being drowned by dust, a desk that hadn't been used in, well ever. And sheathed knife sitting on the desk, as if whoever this room belonged to, they didn't want anyone talking about it. "Who did all of this belong to?" rarity asked. Rainbow dash picked up a small stack of papers woven together like an ancient diary. The inside of the cover read, "Diary of Princess Star Catcher." "Somepony named star catcher" rainbow answered to rarity's earlier question. She flipped through the pages, scanning all kinds of information written on the aged pages. She came to a page with all kinds of sketches of moon cycles, and solar eclipse patterns, and ancient languages scribbled all along the pages. "Looks like star catcher was pretty informed about medusa..." rainbow dash read some more while rarity and applejack searched the room some more. "Wait! listen to this, "i may have finally found a breakthrough, i have found the legendary book of the covens, and now i must hide it, if medusa finds this then no world will be safe, i hope the prophecy is fulfilled soon, my children need me" rainbow dash read aloud. "What's "the book of the covens?"" applejack asked to break the silence. Rainbow dash shrugged, the diary page depicted a pedestal in the middle of a floor, with a weird, snake book on it. It looked strange, and it looked very important. She tucked the diary into her pocket, knowing twilight would want to take a look at it.

Sunset shimmer had grabbed from the weapon room, about a dozen knives strapped to her waist with a knife thrower's belt, a cavalry sword and two Sai swords. Flash had a dagger strapped to his belt, and a bow-staff in his hand. And twilight had a bow on her back, along with a sheath of arrows. In twilight's back-pack were a few other weapons in case the others needed to defend themselves. Including ribbons for rarity, fans for fluttershy (they were made with small blades built in) a javelin spear for rainbow dash, a three-tailed whip for applejack, and a pair of nun chucks for pinkie. They were ready. Twilight texted rainbow dash and fluttershy to meet them outside. They met in front of the scattered remains of the canterlot wondercolt statue. "What in the hay is all that supposed to be for?" applejack demanded. "Fighting back" sunset shimmer replied with a deadly look in her eye. She handed out each of the weapons, pinkie pie was surprisingly good with nun chucks, and rarity was dancing with the ribbons like she was a professional. "I love a functional accessory" she chimed. Rainbow dash was even twirling her javelin like she was a champion baton-twirler! "look you guys, we've been through a lot together, and I'm not one for soft fuzzy moments, believe me, but, i want you guys to know that you are the best friends anyone could ever have" sunset shimmer felt tears prying at her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Unfortunately, her friends saw and they pulled her into a warm group-hug. "You said all that stuff like we're not gonna kick changeling butt!" rainbow dash boasted. "Yah! Now that we got all seven elements a 'harmony, and these fancy weapons, those changelings aren't worth scaring a puppy!" applejack added, "yah! Nothing can scare us now!" rainbow dash said. Her words echoed into the night, which was just too unusual. As soon as the echoes faded, the ground trembled and the school shook! an enormous stone dragon, scales burning green, spikes as black as night, eyes as red as blood, bigger than the school itself considering it just burst out of the school's roof. It was so horrific and terrifying, and rainbow dash and applejack would never admit to ever doing this in their lives, but... "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" they shrieked. The screams sounded so high-pitched and girly that sunset shimmer almost laughed, but this was too serious a matter. "What is that?!" spike asked, clearly terrified. "What we have to kill" sunset replied.


	33. Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32: TRUE COURAGE

"Now no one can stand in the way of my destiny!" the medusa dragon cackled with laughter as she rampaged through the building, demolishing most of it. "Do we have to pay for that!?" rainbow dash called from her spot in the air. Sunset shimmer swallowed her throat and coughed up nervously, "we can't just sit here like ducks, come on!" she ordered. Rainbow dash and applejack nodded, and rainbow zipped up to the fifth dragon head and started poking it with her javelin spear. The dragon head shrieking in annoyance more than pain, like rainbow dash's spear felt like a splinter. Applejack tried to lasso the third dragon head to the ground, and let me just say, that three-tailed whip was stronger than it looked if it could make a dragon struggle to get away from it. While they held it off for a few minutes, sunset shimmer gathered the rest of them in a huddle. "okay, we can't take that thing from down here, that would be suicide, but if some of us could get up to the roof, or, what's left of it, we could get her from an advantage point, it's the element of surprise, and it almost never fails" sunset shimmer explained. "What do you mean almost?" rarity demanded. "never mind that rarity, it sounds good to me, we can hold medusa off, if she gets any farther into the city, let's just say it's ot going to be good, while you and flash get up to the roof" twilight suggested. Sunset shimmer and flash nodded in unison. Rarity was gripping her ribbons like her life depended on it, twilight loaded her bow with an arrow, and fluttershy put on her best game-face. Pinkie pie just giggled and twirled with her nun chucks like it was some sort of game. If it was her style of fighting, hey, go nuts. "Alright, it's do or die time girls, literally" said twilight with clear confidence. the huddle broke up, and twilight, rarity, pinkie, and fluttershy scattered throughout the grounds, whacking and cutting and tripping the dragon this way and that, which didn't do much to hurt it, but it kept it distracted enough so flash and sunset could get into the building. The walls and floors were smashed and crumbling, and let's just say sunset shimmer hoped she didn't have to rebuild it... again. "Be careful!" sunset shimmer warned as she pushed flash back from the edge of a crumbling floor. He looked startled, and was practically out of breath. "power through it bro, we need to keep going" she told him, "i don't know what's more shocking, the fact that i was in a world where everyone was ponies, and now we're fighting a giant twelve-headed dragon, or the fact that you just called me bro" he chuckled. Sunset couldn't help but laugh. Dismembered wires were hanging around and sparking with electricity, another thing to be careful about. The walls were still cloaked in vines and plant life, twigs and leaves even were covering the tile floors. Sunset shimmer held her cavalry sword in her hand, and flash was behind her, clutching his bow staff like it was some sort of magical staff from the gods. A twig snap echoed through the halls. "Was that you?" sunset shimmer whispered, flash shook his head, that twig snap sounded too far away to be him. They froze in their footsteps when general sumac and eight of his wing-men marched through the dark halls up to the two siblings. Sunset shimmer glared into his cold snake eyes, his stare was like getting a tray of fresh ice dumped down your pants. Not enjoyed and often infuriating. "Guess i should have killed you two when i had the chance" he hissed. Sunset shimmer snarled back at him, "well, we're still here, and we're going to kick, your, butts." sumac returned her trash-talk with cruel laughter that was supported by his wing-men. "You go on ahead, I'll hold them off" flash whispered in his sister's ear. This snapped her out of her pit-bull defending-territory expression to look her brother in the face. "No! No I'm not leaving you here, they'll kill you if you try to fight them by yourself" sunset shimmer pleaded. "Hey, I'm tougher then i look" he smiled, though sunset could tell he was scared. "You don't know what these guys are capable of" sunset told him. He saw that she was trying to talk him out of it, but he wasn't changing his mind. "You need to get to the roof, you're wearing that thing for a reason" he replied as he pointed to her element of harmony necklace. Sunset shimmer stared into his blue eyes, she just found him as her brother, even though she always had him as a friend, she didn't want to lose him. Before she could start crying, she threw her arms around him in a hug. He looked a bit taken aback, it was the first time sunset ever actually hugged him. He hugged her back. "Be careful" she whispered. They broke apart and flash unsheathed the Egyptian sword strapped to his back. "Go, now!" he ordered. Sunset shimmer nodded, she winded and punched her way through the soldiers as flash swung his sword and threw a few knives. A soldier caught sunset and grabbed her shoulders and tried to pull her back, when he just exploded in greyish-black smoke, and evaporated into nothing. Sunset shimmer turned, flash had thrown a knife and it hit the changeling in the back. She smiled and saluted to him as she turned and ran. Sword in hand, towards the roof.

Twilight and the five girls were doing their best to try to fend off the medusa dragon. She had summoned her nature magic, and that freak storm had come back! It was pouring rain, the sky covered in dark clouds, lighting striking down every few minutes and hitting the ground around them. Medusa was trying to split them up, weaken their defenses. Twilight was hovering near the fourth dragon head, she thought of how much she wanted to help this wasn't her home, but she knew it, and she knew the good in it. She pulled back her bow string, the arrow began to glow with twilight's magenta magic. She stared at it through the rain, and grinned with mischievous satisfaction. Twilight released the arrow, and it sped through the air, hitting the fourth dragon head directly in its left eye. It cried out in agony from the magic filled arrow. The magic was just a fire spell, beginner's spell. It wasn't very powerful, but it was magic. She pulled back another arrow, this one hit the dragon in the toe. It jumped up in pain, this arrow was armed with an electricity spell. Twilight giggled as the giant, terrifying dragon looked like it was hoping while holding its foot. Rainbow dash flew past her and drove her spear into the dragon's scaly nose. It howled from being stabbed and tied this way and that. But it was stronger than it looked, and it was still kicking. Rainbow dash and fluttershy hovered by twilight in the air, "that thing is huge, it would take an army just to take down one head!" rainbow dash strained. "We'd need a miracle!" said fluttershy, "no, we need magic, look" twilight pointed out as her hands glowed with magenta magic. "Twilight that's brilliant!" rainbow praised. "Rarity! Use your magic!" called twilight from above the girl who was helping applejack throw the dragon off balance. "I can't use my magic here remember!?" she called back. "Use your hands!" twilight held up her hands, which were still glowing with magic. Rarity focused on her ribbons, they began to glow with her diamond blue magic. "Now THIS is an accessory for me!" she chimed. Her ribbons moved like live, glittery snakes that moved with rarity's command. They curled around the enormous dragon scales, pulling them out one by one. The twelfth head wincing in pain each time rarity pulled one of its scales. Now the tables had turned, the six girls had their magic back, and were actually winning!

Sunset shimmer ran, sword in hand, through the halls to get to the roof. She felt her heart pounding against the inside of her chest as she sprinted around the stray wires and large tree roots. Her cavalry sword wasn't a very formidable weapon to go against medusa, but it was sharp enough to break the skin. Her mind raced as she thought of her brother, alone against all those changelings. She pushed the thought away, she had to get to the roof.

Flash swung his sword through another soldier, leaving a pile of smoldering ash. That was the last of them, and sumac had run off somewhere and now flash was alone in the hallway. The sound of hissing echoed through the empty halls. Flash gripped his sword, an expression mounted on his face that read, you don't want none of this! The hissing grew louder as whatever was making the sound came closer. Flash could see three snake-like figures slithering through the shadowed halls. They looked a lot like snakes, but they were huge! At least three times bigger than the biggest anaconda. And the fact that there were three of them made flash swallow his tongue. A stray wire hanging from the ceiling sparked with electricity, giving the hallway enough light so flash could see the snake creatures. They were each matched with poisonous red eyes. The one on the left had blood-orange scales, with red spines along its back so it looked like one of those Chinese dragons, the ones without wings or arms. Another appeared to his right, this one was green with sick yellow spikes along its back, and this one had a mouth that would be more terrifying than a shark looking you right in the face. Row after row of sharp venomous teeth ready to rip his throat out in three seconds flat. The third was bigger than the other two. Its scales were jet black, its spines blood red to match its eyes. Its head was equipped with two twisted goat horns above its killer eyes. Flash stood up tall and held his sword to the snake's head to look more intimidating, which seemed to work for a few seconds, before the black snake bit off the tip of the steel blade. The strong venom melted through the blade, burning it down to the handle. Flash threw the trashed sword over his shoulder and grabbed his guitar, which was strapped to his back the whole time. He let out a battle call to let the snakes know he wasn't in the mood to be messed with. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" he wailed. The snakes weren't phased, but instead let out a terrible and even louder roar. It was gross, their mouths unhinged like they were machines. "Nah uh" flash shook his head and ran down the hallway, away from the three anaconda mutants. They slithered after him, eager to sink their teeth into his neck.

Sunset shimmer busted down the door to the roof. It was Monsunning outside, and the rain stinging her face was getting annoying. She could barely see, but she could hear the roars of pain coming from medusa. She ran ahead to the edge of the roof, and looked down at her six friends fighting off the enormous dragon. Twilight was holding a large piece of brick wall with her magenta magic, and hitting the sixth dragon head over and over. Twilight didn't see the fourth dragon head, winding up behind her, about to pounce. Before sunset shimmer called out to warn her, the dragon head lunged at her, trapping her in its jaws, and throwing her across the ground. She laid there, clearly taken aback by the surprise attack, her wings were twisted and too hurt for her to fly. The sixth and fourth head hovered over her, ready to devour the princess. She let out a scream, and something snapped inside sunset shimmer. Before she could hesitate, she broke into a run. Sprinting to the edge of the roof. As if before any other moment passed, she sprung off the edge of the roof, as she did off that cliff back in equestria. Both for the same reason, she would die before she let anyone hurt her friends. At that thought, her element of harmony necklace, which had remained quiet for the time being, glowed bright with magic. Sunset shimmer raised her sword above her head, and the world seemed to slow down as she fell towards the head of the dragon. But the twelfth dragon head, the one that held medusa's voice, caught her dead in the air with her venomous green claws. "I must say i thought you were dead for sure! But it looks like I'll have to kill you again, when will you understand that you will never be the hero of the story! Sunset glimmer" medusa hissed in twelve voices. Sunset shimmer was angry at medusa for not saying her name right. But then she noticed her element necklace glowing. the magical glow veined its way down to sunset's concealing amulet, making it glow itself to dust, but the magic dust swirled around sunset shimmer's arm, and swallowed her cavalry sword, and morphing it to an amazing medieval, shining steel sword with a gold hilt. The gold was glowing with what looked like, sunlight? But that was impossible unless it was... sunset shimmer grinned with satisfaction. "It's Sunset Shimmer!" she wailed as she drove the sword into medusa's scaly hand. The twelve headed sorceress dropped the fiery haired girl, but she wasn't finished yet. Rainbow dash and fluttershy had caught her in the air and launched the girl towards the dragon's chest. Sunset shimmer landed directly on medusa's heart, driving in her gold sword. Medusa wailed in pain, trying to claw away the sword, but it was impossible. "I might not be the hero of this story! But at least I get to see how it ends!" shouted sunset shimmer as she let go of the sword and dropped to the ground. All twelve heads of the dragon wailed and writhed with pain and frustration. The element of harmony necklace glowed as bright as a star, as did the others. The very magic of the gems rose the seven girls into the air, hovering side by side. With the magical sword still lodged in medusa's heart, its power veined through the sorceress' body, her wails of pain doing nothing to help her. The elements of harmony glowed with such a powerful magic, but they weren't strong enough to ignite, they needed a spark. Sunset shimmer took rainbow dash's hand on her right side, twilight's on her left. The others did as she did. With their hands linked, and the elements of harmony about ready to explode, the seven girls raised their linked hands high above their heads. "You will never break the spirit of friendship medusa!" twilight challenged, her eyes glowing with magic, "you were never able to be completely imprisoned because the elements of harmony were separated, now they are reborn, as the seven elements of harmony! Honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, magic! and the seventh element, the one that was lost for so long..." twilight turned her gaze to sunset shimmer, "i knew what you were, the second i saw the look in your eye when medusa hurt me, i knew that you would die for me, for any of us, that you are our best and greatly trusted friend, and then i knew i my heart, that you are the seventh element of harmony!" twilight turned back to face medusa. "Together with the other six, it is more powerful than any evil you could ever create, the element of... Courage!" the light from the elements burst out in a rainbow of magic, a beam of color coming from each element. They swirled and twisted in unison, gaining speed as it unleashed its power on medusa. The dragon's body was veined with blue light, the magic from the sword, and the elements of harmony combined, were enough to once and for all defeat the wicked sorceress. The magical sword had turned her body to a stone statue, whom was still fighting off the spell and breaking out chunks of rock. But she froze as the last of the spell did its worst, and her evil red eyes were turned to stone. And the rainbow spiraled around her, gaining speed. The scene was astonishingly familiar, but incredibly relieving to see that sunset shimmer wasn't the one getting torn up by a magical rainbow. The rainbow spiral was now spinning as fast as a bullet, spinning faster and faster, glowing brighter and brighter.

Flash had been running, the three giant snakes still chasing after him. He swung his guitar towards the jet black snake. But the snake chomped on the neck and split the guitar in two. "Man, i just had it painted" flash whimpered. The snakes had him cornered, he was sure he was done for, when out of nowhere, a rainbow beam of light shot through the hallway. When the magic beam came into contact with the snakes, they evaporated into smoke, and faded into the air.

Back in equestria, the breezies, prince blueblood, and flash were sprinting through the castle halls. Around prince blueblood's neck was a small vial of a magical liquid. It was the sap from the tree of harmony, princess twilight had dropped it when she and sunset shimmer, along with those other two mares were washed away by that weird flood. The prince had to get to his aunt in time, or it would be too late. Flash felt like an idiot. He had been lost in the forest, and chasing changelings, and being guided by magical butterflies that he'd forgotten about princess celestia being sick. He galloped beside prince blueblood to reach the princess' chambers. They burst through the doors, to fid celestia unconscious in her bed, barely alive. The three breezies took the vial from around bluebloods neck and held it close to celestia's mouth. "Please let it be enough" tra la la begged.

The rainbow had let out an explosion of light. The seven girls shielded their eyes from it. Medusa's stone-self had exploded, and small droplets of rainbow colored light, floated down from the air like rainbow dandelion seeds in the breeze. The girls had been lowered to the ground by the elements' magic, and were grinning at their victory. Especially sunset shimmer, she was overwhelmed with this feeling inside her heart. It felt good.

The breezies dropped three droplets of tree nectar into the princess' dry mouth. Only a few moments passed, but it felt like hours stretching on forever. In a quick and a slightly startling instant, princess celestia's eyes flew open, and it seemed that all of her wicked sister's venom was vaporized. Her coat was once again snow white, her mane flowed like gentle rays of sunlight, and her calm and gentle smile had returned to her face as she stood tall. The breezies and the two colts bowed to their princess. "Arise" she said. They rose to their hooves, and the princess only smiled in gratitude.

"Wow! That was amazing!" pinkie pie exclaimed, she zipped to sunset shimmer's side "you're good again! No, grrrrrr, and rrrrrraaarr, yay!" she giggled. Sunset shimmer couldn't help but smile, "i know, it feels good" she sighed with relief. For the first time, she felt like she could finally breathe, and it was bliss. Twilight and the others looked at her as if to say, welcome back sunny. She just laughed in reply, and they all shared a group hug. When they pulled away, a glint caught sunset shimmer's eye. She walked over to a pile of some debris, and saw it. The sword with the shinning steel blade and gold hilt. She picked it up off the ground, and gazed at her reflection in the blade. "What i don't get, is how did you hurt medusa, i thought no weapon could really harm her, but you, you sliced and diced her like it was no big deal!" twilight said. Sunset shimmer held up to sword so her friends could see. They all stared, their mouths dropped in awe at the magic weapon. "I... is that?" twilight stuttered. "Yep, celestial gold, i guess that's why it killed her, celestial gold is made from sunlight and moonlight forged together in harmony" sunset explained. The sword glowed as it morphed back into the sun and moon pendant that sunset knew better. "Uuuuuhhhh" flash groaned as he walked up to them groggily. "What did i miss?" he asked. It was a fair question, his wing was miraculously healed, but his guitar was totaled. Twilight grinned and walked up to him, "we just saved the world, no biggy" she blushed. She seemed to have noticed his guitar, because her hands glowed with magic. At one touch, the guitar was fixed. And not just fixed, it looked better than before! Flash looked at it like it was a magical sword. Not that it was of course. "The least i could do was fix your guitar" twilight smiled. "Are you serious?' he stammered. Twilight was beaming, "yes, and no returns, orders from a princess... do you like it?" twilight asked nervously. "Are you kidding me? I love it!" flash exclaimed as he scooped twilight into his arms, "i could kiss you!" he beamed. This made things a bit awkward, since he put twilight back on the ground. Sunset shimmer gave her five friends a look that said, "let's give them some privacy." they nodded in agreement, "well, i think we need to patrol the perimeter, you know, see if any changelings are still around, excuse us, won't you?" she said as she herded her friends away from the two. "Let's go" she whispered. They bunched together behind a large piece of debris, watching to see if flash would make a move. Sunset shimmer saw applejack pool some money from rarity, like they were placing bets to see if a kiss would happen. "so, may, i kiss you?" flash asked nervously, "i mean, may you, or, me, wait..." twilight stopped him by kissing his cheek."You may" she grinned. They were both smiling like crazy as their lips met in a loving kiss. Sunset shimmer couldn't help but smile. And rarity pocketed the money that she bet on the kiss. Twilight raised her left leg into the air, clearly happy about kissing flash. When almost a minute passed after that, rainbow dash flew over and interrupted the happy couple. "Alright lovebirds! It's time to get home" she said. As soon as she said it, the waters from the storm, which was now a sunny day, were gathered up into one spot. They swarmed into a large bunch of water, fueled by the magic it came from. When the spell was completed, the portal home looked like and endless wave of clear water. As if it were in the ocean, and it was about to crash to the ground, but it held up in a continuous swell. The eight teenagers, spike included, walked slowly towards it, not aware that they were being followed. Rainbow dash turned and saw a beautiful women, with a snow white coat, amazing Pegasus wings, and a flowing head of pink, blue, and white hair. Rainbow didn't know the woman, but a name escaped her mouth. "Star catcher" she said. The others turned to look at the woman. She was dressed in a flowing full-length, ice blue dress with a knee-high split on the left side. Sunset shimmer and flash were stunned to see her, as was everyone else, but the look in their eyes was different. "Mom" they said together. "MOM!?" the others said like it was a question. Star catchers eyes were warm and loving, the eyes of a mother. Twilight was astonished, she remembered what hope, the butterfly, had said. That flash had a sister, but twilight never would have guessed it to be sunset shimmer! The two didn't notice their friends' expressions because they ran to their mother, and she wrapped her arms around her children, as if a protective blanket was draped over their shoulders. Sunset sniffled as she pulled away. "Well done young heroes, you have come far, but now your journey is at its end" star catcher explained in a soothing voice. Sunset glanced back at the portal home, and said "i won't be coming back, will i?" sunset shimmer asked with sadness in her voice. star catcher lifted her chin, "your life has been lived here my daughter, but you must return to your homeland, that is where you belong, you now understand, that the seventh element is courage, and that courage is not taken, it is earned, you have proven where your heart truly lies, never forget where that is" star catcher explained. Sunset shimmer pondered that for a moment. When the tree of harmony presented the element of courage, and twilight tried to take it, it turned to dust, but when sunset shimmer sacrificed herself to save twilight, its power had found her. She smiled up at her mother. She looked into her moher's soft eyes and asked, "will I ever see you again?" Star catcher smiled "yes my child, but in your world I have another name, and you will come to know me by it." Sunset smiled and stepped back to join her friends, and twilight stepped forward. She hesitated before asking "will i ever come back?" star catcher smiled, "this world may still have need for you." twilight turned back and joined her friends as they walked to the portal together. As they walked, sunset shimmer's amulet glowed with magic. The sun and moon pendant had transformed, into an oval shaped, gold locket, with the blue harmony gem in the center. She clicked it open, and inside was a picture of her family. She felt tears of joy stream down her face. She turned her tail, and ran back. She threw her arms around flash. This was officially the second time she'd ever hugged him. She pulled something out of her pocket. It was a string necklace, with a guitar pick holder as its pendant. The holder held what looked like a solid gold pick! "It was melody's, and i want you to have It." sunset shimmer placed the necklace in flash's palm. There was a picture hidden underneath the pick. He took the pick from its resting place, there was a picture of a couple, and three children playing together. Flash's family, all together. "I thought i needed it to remind me of home, maybe after we're gone, it will remind you of equestria" sunset shimmer said. He tied the necklace around his neck, proud to be wearing it. Star catcher waved her hand, and with her movement, and inscription appeared on the gold pick. Flash picked it up and read aloud, "The courage within you is stronger than any fear before you." he smiled and hugged his sister one last time. Sunset shimmer joined her friends again at the portal. Not before looking back one more time. Star catcher's dress had transformed into a simple ballet pink blouse with a sky-blue women's blazer, matching blue skirt, and snow white heels. Her warm loving smile still there. The seven friends stepped into the wave of magic, and the waters swallowed them, giving the one last look at flash sentry, star catcher, and the human world.


	34. Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33: COMING HOME

The magical waters swirled and were changing the seven girls. Sunset shimmer watched as her hands were morphed back into hooves, her mane flowing through the gentle current. The light of the sun shone above them as they swam up. The seven mares' heads broke the surface, but they weren't transported back to the historic battle field, but the throne room of canterlot castle. The waters disappeared, and their coats completely dry. No one had anything to say about what just happened, not even pinkie pie. "That was," rainbow dash began "Awesome!" she exclaimed as she hovered in the air. The seven friends laughed with delight, even though sunset felt a bit sad that she would never go back, but her mother was right, her place was in equestria. "Princess Twilight, you have returned!" praised a familiar voice. It was princess celestia! "Celestia! You're okay!" twilight cheered as she hugged the princess. Celestia glanced at the elements of harmony around their necks, especially the element of courage, to which sunset shimmer was its bearer. "The seventh element, you found it?" celestia asked, a bit surprised. Spike and the breezies bounded up behind the princess, smiles pinned on their faces. sunset hesitated at first, but then replied, "turns out that friendship was exactly what i needed, my curse is gone, forever" celestia smiled warmly at her former student. "You have shown great courage sunset shimmer, and for that i owe you my life, there is a group of exceptional ponies in my court, you may have heard of them as 'the knights if the round stable'" celestia explained. "You mean they're real? I always thought they were an old pony's tale" sunset replied. "They are indeed real, and i think that you, would be the perfect choice for their newest member." celestia explained happily. Sunset shimmer's mouth hung open in surprise. "Me? As a... knight?" she stuttered from excitement. Celestia nodded, and sunset leaped into the air. "Of course i accept! This is amazing, me? As a knight of the round stable!" she squealed in delight. "Sweet! A knight, that's like..." rainbow dash started, "five times more awesome than a wonderbolt, or, maybe just two times better, being a wonderbolt would still be my number-one-dream job" she said with confidence. "But..." celestia added. The seven mares stopped to listen. "but first a choice must be made for you sunset, the elements of harmony are the soul heart of the tree of harmony's magic, yet they have brought you to the magic of friendship, the choice is yours, you can keep your element, or return it and the others to the tree of harmony" celestia explained. Sunset shimmer thought deeply. Her element of harmony was the thing that bound her to her friends, but then again, she was friends with these girls way before she even knew she was an elements of harmony! And even without it, she would always be connected to her element, and her friends. she grinned, "i choose to return my element to the tree of harmony, that is it's true home, and i won't be the one to take it away from it" she said bravely. Her friends hugged her, and she smiled. Princess Celestia smiled too.

"Are you sure?" celestia asked. The princess and the seven mares were now in the cavern that held the tree of harmony. Sunset shimmer stood in front of the magical tree, she had chosen to return the element to its home, and that's what she was going to do. She nodded once, and joined her friends at the tree. Tra la la, tiddlywinks, and zipzee had used their breezie magic to grow another element branch, so the magic of the seven elements would give life to the tree of harmony. Twilight smiled as she used her magenta magic to lift each element gem out of each necklace. Carefully she placed each one in its rightful place. They all glowed with magic, a ribbon of colors streamed through the elements and into the tree. It was beautiful to watch. "It is done" said celestia. "Well, that's over and done, what do we do now?" tiddlywinks asked. Zipzee and tra la la shrugged. "You three will be charged with a very dangerous, but very important task" celestia replied. "Bring it on!" tra la la challenged. "You three possess the three most powerful magic's, friendship, love, and family, and with these powers you will protect and watch over the tree of harmony, i know you won't fail." the breezies held up their heads with confidence. "We won't let you down your highness" said zipzee. A loud bark came from sunset shimmer. They all turned to look at her in surprise, "wasn't me!" she shrugged. "Rrrruuuufff!" the noise barked again, Hercules scurried out from sunset shimmer's mane. "Hercules! Were you there the whole time?" she asked. He barked in reply and nuzzled her cheek. Everypony laughed, it felt good to laugh again, and it felt good to be free again. Celestia smiled down at her former student, "we all have a ceremony to prepare for" she said. Rarity squealed with delight, "i already have sooo many ideas for your ceremonial knight's dress, we could start with..." "that won't be necessary rarity, i can tell sunset has already decided on what to wear" celestia cut in. "oooohhh" rarity pouted, she and her friends then continued laughing and rarity joined in.

Everypony gathered in the throne room rose to greet the heroes who stopped medusa from destroying their kingdom. The doors opened and sunset shimmer was dressed in the golden armor of a royal guard, to symbolize her great bravery. Her six friends stood beside her, because they had all defeated medusa together. The music ponies played the ceremonial royal guard song.

"United we stand, now and forever  
In truth, divided we fall  
Hoof upon hand, brother to sister  
No one shall be greater than all

United we stand, now and forever  
In truth, divided we fall  
Hoof upon hand, brother to sister  
No one shall be greater than all"

The seven mares bowed to the princess', who all stood together side by side, Princess Luna, and princess cadence, three of the four alicorns. Celestia smiled.

"On this great day we celebrate  
All that makes our kingdom great  
Harmony and friendship for all

None of us we will divide  
We will all stand side by side  
Promising equality for all who reside"

princess celestia brought her horn down gently on sunset shimmer's left shoulder, to officially proclaim her, a knight of the round stable! Celestia's horn glowed in sun gold, and a royal red tarp that covered a window fell to the ground. Underneath it showed a beautiful stain glass window, right in the place of the window medusa had put there. In the picture showed sunset shimmer standing with her six friends, applejack, fluttershy, pinkie pie, rarity, rainbow dash, and twilight sparkle. They were wearing the elements of harmony, their rainbow colors weaving throughout the picture. Medusa was in her dragon form, the twelve heads all tangled up, and the rainbow colors spiraling around her glass body. It was amazing, and sunset shimmer smiled with pride.

"United we stand, now and forever  
In truth, divided we fall  
Hoof upon hand, brother to sister  
No one shall be greater than all"

Shining armor, as captain of the royal guard, should in front of them so sunset could take the pledge of knights. To pledge to give the rights of the kingdom to all who live within it. Every member of the knights was present, and took the pledge with her, to symbolize interdependence, and teamwork. While twilight and the others sung the guard's anthem.

"Liberty"  
"Justice"  
"Trust"

"Shall be greater than all"

"Freedom"  
"Peace"  
"Honor"

"No one greater than all"

"Goodness"  
"Strength"  
"Valor"

"Shall be greater than all"

This was everything sunset wanted, to be free of that dark curse, to have friends who care about her, to have a family once more, to be home. She glanced at her family sitting in the seating rows. Her father was beaming with pride, her sister saluted in respect, her mother smiled warmly as usual, and her brother was with the other knights. celestia announced "i, princess celestia, hear-by call upon this mare who stands before you with courage in her heart, who defended equestria with her life, sacrificing herself and risking her life time and time again, to defend out great kingdom, from this day forward she will stand as a knight of the round stable!" the crowd stomped their hooves in applause. Sunset shimmer beamed with pride, her heart did summer-saults inside her chest, but everything was worth it. The knights raised their right hooves in unison, to salute the kingdom of equestria, and for the first of many more times, sunset shimmer raised her right hoof, and saluted too. once the ceremony was over, everypony retired to their homes in canterlot, but sunset shimmer and her six friends, as well as the princess's, shining armor, and sunset's family stayed to congratulate her. Her mother approached her with a smile glowing with love and pride, "you came home" sunset beamed as she hugged star catcher. "I wouldn't miss it for the world" her mother chimed. "I knew you could do it, I'm sorry i wasn't there for you all those years, but know that i love you and always will" star catcher explained. Sunset felt a tear of joy slip down her face as she squeezed her mother. She pulled away, and star catcher went back to join sunset's father. She was so happy that her family was reunited, but yet she sighed with sorrow. "Whatever is wrong sunset shimmer? are you not thrilled to be a knight, and that you may once again return to your life in canterlot?" asked princess Luna, "that's the problem, i finally know the magic of friendship, and how amazing it is to have friends, i have to leave them" she frowned. Princess Luna glanced at her sister with an idea in her head, she whispered the idea in celestia's ear. princess celestia nodded in agreement, and rainbow dash suggested, "you know, twilight IS a princess after all" rarity took up for her, "and the knight's should purpose is to protect the royals of equestria" pinkie pie butted in too "and come to think of it, there are NO royal guards, OR knights in ponyVille to protect the innocent princess twilight form danger!" the princess sister smiled, "a very valid point girls, sunset?" sunset shimmer perked up her ears to listen. "i hereby decree that from this day on, princess twilight shall have at least One royal guard in ponyville at all times, to watch over, and protect her with their life, and i think you would be perfect for the job sunset" celestia announced. Sunset shimmer's eyes widened in what looked like a combination of surprise and joy. "What do you think sunset? Are you up for it?" shining armor asked with a sly smile. Sunset was speechless, she nodded excitedly and her friends cheered and wrapped her in a group hug. They all smiled with joy, relief, and most of all, love.


	35. Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34: JUST A DREAM

Sunset shimmer had joined her friends on the train to ponyville, and they were leading her to some unknown location. Sunset held a red quill with her magic as she wrote her very first entry in the diary that she and her six friends now shared. "okay, it's my first entry in this diary, honestly i'm nervouse, not for writting, but for what lies ahead. i know that medusa was definatly not the only villain my new friends and i will face, but like my best friends once told me, you must at least find the courage to try, i was afraid to fail, but then i realized that the only true failure is when you stop trying, so now i know that no matter how afraid you are, a little bit of courage and bravery can overcome it, especially when you have the bestest friends in equestria by your side." sunset closed the diary and twilight had insisted she wear a blind-fold. Hercules was sitting on her shoulder as her friends lead her through ponyville. "So, where are we going?" she asked finally, she lifted her blind-fold the tinniest bit when pinkie pie pounced in and said "no peeking!" sunset shimmer dropped the blind-fold back over her eyes. "Okay, we're almost there" twilight acknowledged, "where exactly is 'there'?" sunset shimmer asked in reply. "I can't say, it's a surprise" twilight added, sounding all giddy and excited. the sound of a door-knob turning and the creek of an opening door made sunset very excited, twilight removed the blind-fold, but sunset kept her eyes shut because she pinkie promised to keep them closed until her friends said otherwise. "Okay, open your eyes!" twilight said. Sunset shimmer blinked as the light of the room flooded her vision. It was a loft, with a kitchen, bathroom, and bed-room. "It's nice, whose is it?" sunset asked as she explored the den. "It's yours" twilight smiled. "Mine? Really?" sunset shimmer replied, "Well duh it's yours, you can't live in ponyville without a house, silly!" pinkie pie added. "And wait til' you see down-stairs, it was made, just for you!" said rainbow dash. Sunset followed her friend's down-stairs. It was a two-story loft, so whatever was downstairs must be really cool for rainbow dash to brag about it. "ta-dah!" chimed rarity. Sunset's jaw dropped open as she stared at the room. There were obstacle courses, and ladders and rock ledges along the walls, swing-bars, and climbing ropes, and nets hanging from the ceiling, and all sorts of targets, and knives and swords and possibly every weapon known to equestria sitting on racks and along the walls! "Is it not the coolest most awesome thing you've ever seen?" asked rainbow dash. Sunset shimmer glanced at Hercules, who was eyeing a hamster-tunnel system twisting throughout the ceiling and in and out of the walls, and not really paying attention to anything else. "This, is... Amazing!" sunset shimmer praised. Her friends smiled with pride as their friend examined all the equipment. "Look at all this training equipment! This would make the designer of the royal guards training room cry! You did this, for me?" she asked. "Of course we did darling, you needed a place to live, so we fixed up this old place for you" explained rarity. "Hey! New friend, new house, new knight, you know what this needs?" asked pinkie. "What?" they all asked in unison. pinkie pie kicked open the front door to reveal everyone in ponyville smiling and laughing and having fun, along with balloons, cake, and all sorts of decorations. "A party!" pinkie answered. She herded her friends out the door and they were showered with congratulations and praise. Sunset was talking with applejack when a hoof tapped her shoulder. "Did you miss me sunny?" asked a familiar voice. Sunset shimmer turned to face her sister, melody breeze, "melody!" she cheered as she gave her big sister a hug. "So i hear you're like a big-shot now huh, well, congrats little sis, i didn't think you had it in you" melody joked. Sunset playfully punched her arm in reply. The sisters chatted for a while, then melody went off to go mingle some more, and pinkie pie pulled sunset shimmer over to a stage, apparently there was going to be a show. Sunset shimmer had been told that melody had been working and scribbling lyrics ever since she heard her sister was home. And she convinced her friend sapphire shores to sing it tonight. She signaled sapphire shores on stage, and the pop star began to sing,

"If I could reach the top of the world  
Be all I am and it'd be so beautiful  
If only...  
I could be brave and I could be strong  
I would know where I belong  
If only...

While sapphire sang, sunset shimmer trotted through the crowds, who were going crazy over the song that sapphire shores was singing. Sunset touched the gold locket around her neck, conceal, and reveal, to heal. First the locket hid her dark magic, and now it was a locket that held a picture of her family, and turned into a magical gold sword whenever sunset summoned it!

"I wanna to feel free to be who I am  
What I'm about is more than I've been  
Ready to show the world who I am  
And start letting out what I'm holding in  
And find my own place to stand  
So I can be who I am

Oooooooh yeaaay

I'm closer to where I'm meant to be  
If I try I know that I can get there  
And not gonna stop 'cause I believe  
That it's so much more... to me yea..."

sunset shimmer signaled rainbow dash in the air, she saluted and sped through the air, breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic rain-boom, and making the crowd explode in cheering and applause. Her father approached her in the crowd, her mother and sister were with him. "I still can't believe you did all of this, in about a week!" bronze blade laughed. "A good friend of mine told me, "you need to find the courage to try," turned out to be pretty good advice" sunset shimmer said as she threw twilight a wink. She smiled back and then trotted over. "So, what did you say earlier, about NOT moving to ponyville?" twilight joked. This made sunset laugh "oh shut up, you got that place for me, i was just nice enough to accept it" she chuckled. "We both know that being nice is NOT one of your natural qualities" twilight laughed back. "Okay, come on! I want to introduce you to everypony!" twilight beamed. She dragged sunset shimmer through the crowd, introducing her to Miss Cheerilee, big Macintosh, photo finish, DJ pon3, etc. etc... a familiar head of gold caught her attention, prince blueblood. "so, your name is sunset shimmer?" he asked, she blushed and smiled, "yah, sorry about all the lying, i'm afraid i used to do that a lot." blueblood chuckled, "i thought it was amazing" "you did?" sunset said, clearly confused. "of course, i told princss twilight that i wanted to find a mare who was brave, selfless, adventureous, and you, you are more than anything i ever could have barganned for!" he said, but he meant it to be a good thing. "if you wouldn't mind, i would love to get to know sunset shimmer better" blueblood smiled. sunset blushed again, "well, you can start with this" she said as she kissed blueblood on the cheek. his eyes widened and he blushed, as he kissed her back, this time on the lips. this caught sunset shimmer a bit by surprise, but she liked it as much as she liked blueblood. he pulled away, and they both blushed. "i'll see you around" he said. sunset smiled "yah, see you" he saluted and trotted away with a skip in his step. twilight and applejack trotted up with sly grins, "well that was somethin' wasn't it?" said applejack. "yah, he seemed happy to see you" twilight grinned with a raised eyebrow. sunset shimmer rolled her eyes, the friends walked to the stage and listened to sapphire shores sing.

"I wanna feel free to be who I am  
Oh yeah, it's more than I've been  
Ready to show the world who I am  
Oh yeah yeah, yeah

I've found my own place to stand  
So I could be who I am  
yeaah yea yeaah yea yea  
So I can be who I am...

So I can be who I am

Yeah... "

Sunset shimmer had never felt so happy, she had her family, all of them. And her friends, true friends. Her past was just that, her past, and it didn't matter now. She was herself again, not some tool for evil, she was sunset shimmer, spirit of the element of courage, and she was as strong and courageous as the burning sun. She now knew that THAT was what her cutie mark truly meant. Courage is being strong like the sun, and so was she. She now had memories of friendship, and family, and love. And everything was as it should be. But as the newest member of the knights of the round stable, she would stand united with her friends, through whatever the universe threw at them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna asked her and her friends to talk alone, and sunset joined them behind the stage. "How are you liking your new home sunset?" the princess asked. "Well, I've only been in it for, about a minute, so..." her voice trailed off. "Sunset, you know of the powerful magic that the elements of harmony hold" celestia began. "Yes, why?" she asked in reply. "we fear that the darkness of our wicked sister may still be within you, and to stop it from taking hold of you once more, i have conjured this" princess Luna held up a glass bottle, containing a sparkling liquid, small glowing orbs fluttering throughout the potion. "I have called this potion, star-dust, with it, you can conjure any memory into one's mind, and it is so real, it is as if they have lived through it for real" Luna explained. "What does that have to do with us?" rainbow dash asked. "Friendship is what saved sunset shimmer from death, and so memories of the magic of friendship will protect her if the darkness tries to take hold of her again" celestia replied. "Memories that all of you have had together, she will have as well" Luna finished. "But it is your choice, and yours alone, we will not force you if you do not agree" said celestia. The seven friends exchanged glances, twilight could almost hear what her friends were thinking, and she nodded in agreement. "sunset shimmer and i haven't always been friends, we started out as enemies, but if memories of friendship will stop medusa's magic from ever touching her again, then count me in!" twilight agreed. "I'm all for it!" said rainbow dash, "I'm in too" said fluttershy. "I am ready to remember!" squealed pinkie pie as she rubbed her temples in concentration. The six mares put their right hooves in a circle, sunset hesitated at first, but smiled and put her hoof in too. Celestia and Luna nodded in confirmation. "Who knows? Maybe you'll wake up tomorrow, and feel that this whole adventure was just a dream" said princess celestia. Princess Luna removed the cap of the bottle, and the glowing orbs flew out, soaring through the sky, and spreading out across the land. Seven of the orbs stayed, one being absorbed into each mare's mind. Changing and morphing memories. sunset started to remember all sorts of different things, nightmare moon sending her a vision of peace, and all sunset had to do was abandon the quest for the elements of harmony, but sunset found the courage to keep going, and in doing so earned her element. She remembered discord taking away her courage, and her turning into a trembling coward. She remembered the canterlot wedding, the crystal empire, the galloping gala, the equestria games, the breezies, going to Manehattan for fashion week with rarity. It was all there in her memories. And they would be with her forever, adventure after adventure, she would stand with her friends. And together they were stronger than any evil.

Sunset shimmer blinked open her eyes. She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She climbed out of bed and chewed on oat-flakes while practicing her knife throwing. She hit the target every time, even though her mind was elsewhere. She rarely had dreams, and this one was very strange, it kept going on and on and on! She decided to ask twilight about it, she would know. Sunset took one more bite of her oat-flakes and trotted out the door. She walked to twilight's castle. It was amazing and sunset would never get used to seeing it every day. It stood in the place of the golden oaks library, which had been destroyed by the evil Tirek. it seemed like only yesterday her unicorn magic was stolen by tirek so he would take over equestria, but the seven friends stopped him by unleashing what twilight like to call 'the rainbow power.' it was really cool, when the chest from the tree of harmony had been opened, the rainbow power had been released, and the seven friends had transformed! Sunset had found her key by going to the crystal empire to visit her brother. It was guards exchange week, and sunset had to trade places with a crystal guard. Her brother's supervisor was a real jerk, he pushed everypony around like he was captain and not shining armor. His name was flame tail, and since he was their boss, sunset shimmer felt like she couldn't stand up for her brother. But she took the risk and told him to start acting better or get out. He took the hint and left, and sunset was given a set of crystal armor from shining armor. The helm of the armor had been her key, for finding courage and standing up for those who couldn't do it themselves. "Twilight?" sunset shimmer called. Her voice echoed through the castle halls. "Sunset?" asked rainbow dash as she flew up behind the unicorn. "What are you doing here?" rainbow asked. "I was about to ask you the same thing" sunset replied. "I had the craziest dream last night" rainbow dash said. "Me too, what was yours about?" asked sunset shimmer. "I don't remember any details, but i remember that princess celestia and Princess Luna had another sister, and she was super evil, and tried to take over equestria, but somehow we stopped her" rainbow dash explained. "No way! Mine was like that too!" "Whoa, creepy." rarity trotted up to them like she was in a hurry too. "Thank celestia you two are here, have either of you seen twilight?" rarity asked. "No, let me guess, you had the craziest dream last night, and you think twilight might have answers" rainbow guessed. Rarity nodded. "Girls, what are you doing here so early?" asked twilight as she walked over to her friends. "Before you say anything, let's go to the throne room and talk" twilight waved them forward. They walked to the throne room together, fluttershy, pinkie pie, and applejack were already sitting in their thrones when they arrived. Sunset took her seat in the throne that was labeled with her cutie mark. "so, I'm going to come out and say what we're all thinking, did any of you have, weird dreams last night?" twilight asked. "I did" said applejack, "so did i" rarity added, "me too" rainbow dash cut in, "dido" said sunset shimmer. "What's going on, why are we all having the same dream?" twilight asked herself, her friends just shrugged. "Well i for one and totally over it!" said pinkie pie. "What?" the six others said together, "pinkie pie how can you say that, this could be very important" twilight objected. "Yah, but in my dream, we found seven keys and opened the tree of harmony chest, and found what was inside, but that already happened! So there's really nothing to worry about" pinkie explained. The six pondered that for a moment, "come to think of it, pinkie's right, we did already open the chest" said rainbow dash. "And if the dream meant anything then we would probably be getting some horrible omen from princess celestia, so pinkie is absolutely right, nothing to worry about" rarity concluded. "Well, alright then, meeting adjourned" said twilight. "Good, cupcakes anypony?" asked pinkie pie as she held up a tray filled with rainbow-frosted cupcakes. Everypony took one and talked and laughed together, spike even retold the story of him melting the giant ice-berg that would have crushed the equestria games, for the fifth-tenth time. Sunset shimmer smiled, she had six of the bestest friends in the world, a loving family, even a colt-friend in canterlot. Prince blueblood was very adventurous, and exactly sunset's type. What more could anypony want?


	36. Epilouge

EPILOUGUE

Flash heard the door-belle jingle as he walked into sugar-cube cafe. It had been a week since his sister left to go back to equestria, and between you and me, he remembered nothing of it. Last week the town had received a category-five hurricane warning and were told to evacuate. Most of the school had been totaled, but they were working on repairs, until then school was out. Flash bought a chocolate shake and sat at a booth. He spotted sunset shimmer, his sister, over at the bar with her friends. He smiled and she waved, then she went back to her conversation. A few months back, a girl named twilight had come to their school, and for some reason, brights brightly, the school's ultimate mean-girl tried to shoot her down. But twilight had befriended the six girls, and as it turns out, Brights brightly was, oddly enough, an evil clone of his sister. when brights brightly tried to kill twilight with a fire-ball, the seven girls rose up and defeated brights brightly, transporting the bad part of sunset shimmer back into her body, so she wasn't too nice, or too mean. He twiddled with the guitar pick necklace around his neck, he could never remember where he got it, whenever he felt like the memory was close, he lost it soon after. Sunset shimmer was his sister, and his best friend, they had loads of adventures together, some too awesome to mention. She and her friends were pretty much the back-bone of canterlot high school. Always there to protect the innocent from those who lived for their humiliation. He sipped his drink, and the gold pick shimmered from the sunlight outside. A small glimmer of a rainbow caught his eye, he looked for it again, but it didn't show. The courage within you is stronger than any fear before you, he thought. The memory of where he got the gold pick wasn't there, but the inscription on it would guide him through all new adventures, whatever they might be.

THE END


End file.
